I have avoided writing about this for a long time, mostly because I was not sure how helpful writing would be. This is primarily a games site, not an academic one. But I am an academic games researcher, and I can’t stay silent anymore. I am worried for the state of higher education in America.
And not in the way I’ve been worried in the past. I do not want to write an alarmist piece that retrods well-argued points about how universities are thinly-veiled capitalist corporations, or about the impossibilities of sustainable labor in the academy, or how academia is a bubble currently undergoing “market correction.” I see all of those as symptoms of the much larger and more insidious problem, the one that we all allude to but don’t say out loud as often as we should: the destruction of the institutions that uphold the very purpose of academia, institutions without which our society is vulnerable to many of the ills and manipulations which it is currently and increasingly facing.
So I want to open a discussion at one step up from that. I want to talk about our purpose as academics, and what we can do to fight the threats to that purpose, even those from within our own institution.
We are the intellectual frontline against an undercurrent that is giving rise to authoritarianism. We know this. We have seen the signs. We are not responsible, but neither are we powerless. Therefore it is our duty to understand and uphold our values in the face of those who hope to crush them out of us for their own gain.
I talk about ideology in relation to media criticism a lot. One has to know one’s own stances in order to argue them well. And similarly, we as academics need to understand our purpose in order to protect it.
The purpose of academia, as I see it, is to extend and disseminate knowledge.
We extend knowledge through research practices; through discussion; through paper-writing, reading, and rebuttals; through discourse. We disseminate that knowledge through teaching; writing; leveraging various media; ideally, by getting discussion happening in whatever manner is most effective (which is often not via the means incentivized by the metrics of career advancement. It is up to you to reconcile the ethics of how you disseminate your knowledge, but that is a debate for another time).
What, then, threatens that purpose? Most pressingly, the spirit of anti-intellectualism that runs rampant in our government, our media, and our own administrations. We have known this for a while, but seem incapable of addressing it.
Now, more than ever, it is the duty of academics to fight the rise of anti-intellectualism. The discrediting of experts and destruction of institutional learning is a well-known tactic in the authoritarian’s playbook. All the signs point to the rise of American Fascism. But even if you don’t buy into a nefarious intent behind the rise of anti-intellectualism, it is possible to erode the purpose of our institutions through the spreading of systemic ills and fractures, and this is exactly the unspoken argument underlying so much discourse about the troubles facing the academy.
Our educational institutions are under attack from all sides. The Trump administration has gutted most of the major funding sources for research in our country. The NEH, NSF, NIH, IMLS — all saw drastic cutbacks or outright sunset plans in the last few months. Public confidence in the value of universities and their capacity to educate has been steadily declining for years, especially among Republicans. Graduate laborers around the country—following those at my home institution, UC Santa Cruz— are striking in protest of poverty-level wages and discriminatory firings of education workers who have campaigned for a living wage.
Most worryingly, our own administration’s response to this has been to throw the book at some of our most promising researchers, attacking not just their employment but their student conduct records, and in some cases their visas, in what are clearly oppressive scare tactics. Our own administrators are assaulting our mission. The buck has to stop somewhere.
So what can we do? Whichever of the three battles you’d like to fight—the government level, the public opinion level, or the university level—all of them need voices and champions.
First, write. It’s the easiest thing to do and we are very practiced at it. Every tenured professor in the country should be writing—writing letters to senators, writing op-eds, writing your administration, ideally with collective signatories and open letters. Writing is easy. Writing is powerful. Write.
Second, organize. One of the most powerful images to emerge from the Santa Cruz strikes was this one. Faculty marching in regalia is powerful and sends an incredible message. Imagine a march of regalia-clad professors on capital buildings. Unfortunately in-person marches may be too dangerous for the short-term but how else can you make an impact through organization? Systems at work within your institution are allowing injustices; how can you change those systems and how can you personally protect your most vulnerable colleagues?
Third, engage in public. Write blog posts. Make Youtube videos. Stream on Twitch. Talk about this stuff loudly. Post about it on social media. It should not be a shock to anyone in your sphere that this assault on intellectualism is happening. Talk about it.
Fourth, engage in private. We need more conversation on a personal level. You will need to talk to Uncle Buddy about why he supports Trump and wants to own the libs. And in order for that conversation to go anywhere, you will need to listen. Really listen. Maybe read my refresher on how to argue well. Everyone I have ever talked to who supports Trump is deeply hurting from some kind of oppression (usually financial, classist, or patriarchal oppression) and does not understand that their hopes for alleviation of that oppression are misplaced. We are educators; educate your radicalized family.
Lastly, engage politically. The 2021 budget proposal the Trump administration released in February represented an unprecedented decrease in funding across the humanities and sciences. It would completely defund libraries. This is a direct attack on our ability to create and disseminate knowledge, and it’s a powerfully symbolic one. Contact your legislature. Know where your representatives stand on these issues. We cannot let this stand.
I am incredibly proud of the professors who came out in support of graduate workers, and even more proud of those who fight battles for individuals.
I know things are hard right now. I know you’re struggling to teach your class online while your toddler pulls at your leg. I know this could not come at a worse time. But a crisis is the most opportune time for those in power to seize more. It is the easiest time to make terrifying, sweeping changes with lasting effects. It is easiest because people are too tired to engage.
These are the death throes of the academy and its knell ushers in fascism. The last 3 months in particular have brought undeniable, landscape-shifting changes that should be terrifying every academic in the country. We must fight this. We must.
