About

This blog is linked with an ongoing book project Academic Irregularities: Language and Neoliberalism in Higher Education, published by Routledge in 2019. The authors are Liz Morrish and Helen Sauntson. Our approach is informed by both critical linguistics and the emerging discipline of critical university studies. We use actual linguistic data drawn from a number of universities to reflect on marketisation, consumerism, audit culture and the colonisation of the corporate academic.

18 thoughts on “About”

  1. Pingback: The History of New Public Management in UK Universities | The Sociological Imagination

  2. Dear Liz,
    I recently read your essay “Why the Audit Culture Made Me Quit” in THE and thought it was fantastic (albeit depressing). I am a feminist legal studies academic in Australia and I am interested in introducing myself and finding out more about your research and critical university studies. It would be great if you could email me. Many thanks, Jessica

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    3. Dear Liz, I am a senior academic also getting out. I would like to turn this moment into something of use to Critical University Studies, and would welcome some advice if you’re willing to email me. With thanks, Katy

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  3. Dear Liz (and Helen), Those of us in the Charivari collective (https://charivari.live/) wanted to send our support for your blog and our appreciation of Liz’s THES article. Australian academics face exactly the same problems and frustrations associated with managerialism that you describe. Good luck and best wishes. George Morgan (Western Sydney University)

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  4. Hi both
    I came across your work via Ding and Bruce’s recent book and was interested in your corpus of university mission statements. I would really love to look at some of the raw data, in particular, the use of verbs in the mission statements. Would some of this data be made available to share or feature in an alternative text e.g. upcoming book?
    And/or are there plans to update the corpus as mission statements are updated [particularly post-TEF and post-Brexit].
    Many thanks and good luck with the book: I look forward to reading it.

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    1. Hi Jennifer,
      Thanks for getting in touch. The HE scene is moving so fast that there is always a new perspective to engage with. We are using some updated mission statements in the forthcoming book (Academic Irregularities). It may be best if you contact Helen Sauntson directly as she is the analyst in our duo. She is at l.sauntson@yorksj.ac.uk
      Meanwhile, I’m talking at B’ham U on 8th November on the discourse of TEF

      The Digital University in a Neoliberal Age

      Very best wishes,
      Liz

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  5. Liz, I attended the symposium that you spoke at on the 8th November and it was excellent – it was also a major factor in me changing my MA dissertation to be on the subject of the REF and audit culture. I am keen to interview social scientists on exactly this subject. Please could you advise your email address to me at sawt1@student.le.ac.uk so I can send you an invitation to participate and discuss further? Many thanks indeed, Steve Thomas

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  6. Hey. Just read your Neo-liberalisn in the academy and I have read your stuff before – brilliant and bang on. I am an academic survivalist at the other place in York – would love to discuss further. John

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Critical university studies, discourse and managerialism