Mobilising spaces of fugitive complaint within the neoliberal university

We reflect on a year-long series of experiments held in collaboration with doctoral researchers from minoritised backgrounds. These experiments included creative methods, zine-making and collective conversations, all of which constitute our co-theorisations of spaces of fugitive complaint. In this paper, we critically reflect on the use and value of these composite spaces, by thinking about how complaints are vocalised and are heard, and their fugitive possibilities. We centre not just listening but also grieving the university and reassembling ourselves in the wake of institutional violence. We argue that in conjunction, these three modes – listening, grieving, and recovering – are necessary to unsettle hierarchies of power within the university and speak to fugitive acts of imagining other liberatory worlds.

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Publication Details

Journal
Gender Place & Culture
Published
2025-04-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2025.2484693
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Higher Education Governance and Development
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.52
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article

Mobilising spaces of fugitive complaint within the neoliberal university

Kavita Ramakrishnan, Esther Priyadharshini, Farhana Ghaffar
1 citations
Gender Place & Culture
Higher Education Governance and Development
8.52
article

Mobilising spaces of fugitive complaint within the neoliberal university

Kavita Ramakrishnan, Esther Priyadharshini, Farhana Ghaffar
article en
1 citations

Abstract

We reflect on a year-long series of experiments held in collaboration with doctoral researchers from minoritised backgrounds. These experiments included creative methods, zine-making and collective conversations, all of which constitute our co-theorisations of spaces of fugitive complaint. In this paper, we critically reflect on the use and value of these composite spaces, by thinking about how complaints are vocalised and are heard, and their fugitive possibilities. We centre not just listening but also grieving the university and reassembling ourselves in the wake of institutional violence. We argue that in conjunction, these three modes – listening, grieving, and recovering – are necessary to unsettle hierarchies of power within the university and speak to fugitive acts of imagining other liberatory worlds.

Gender Place & CultureVol. 33(1)
University of East Anglia (GB)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Higher Education Governance and Development
8.52
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