Transformative Identities: Journeys through the Neoliberal University in Search of Social Justice

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses the current crisis in the United Kingdom higher education system and how the introduction of market forces has left academic staff and students dissatisfied. With shrinking budgets, increased competition, and classrooms full of students with complex lives and backgrounds, this glossy marketing material feels disingenuous. I reflect on how the university classroom can become a radical space in which the neoliberal university is challenged through a participatory, reflective, and inclusive critical pedagogy modeled on hooks' and Freire's philosophy. Describing and interpreting a three-year program delivered in a university in London, I consider how an anthropological curriculum helped students and teacher alike reflect their experiences back to university management, articulated a critique of current neoliberal policies, and ultimately embodied the social justice ethos that was previously just marketing copy of commodified educational experiences.