Liz Morrish

York St John University, Languages and Linguistics, Visiting Fellow

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Liz Morrish is an independent scholar who works in the emerging discipline of critical university studies. She posts recent work on her blog: https://academicirregularities.wordpress.com/

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Feona Attwood

Middlesex University

Na'ama Pat-El

The University of Texas at Austin

Andrea Peto

Central European University

Brian W King

The University of Hong Kong

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Eitan Grossman

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Martin Haspelmath

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Stephen Whittle

Manchester Metropolitan University

Francisco Vazquez-Garcia

Universidad de Cadiz

Mauro Grondona

University of Genova

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Papers by Liz Morrish

Part I Queering Nationalities and Cultures

Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016

Brexit – is this Schrödinger’s neoliberalism?

The Sociological Review, Jun 28, 2016

New perspectives on language and sexuality

Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2007

Part III Queer Activism

Queering Paradigms III

Part II Queer Performances

Queering Paradigms III

The Rise of the Trump Academic

The Sociological Review, Sep 19, 2016

https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/the-rise-of-the-trump-academic.html The

Kathleen O’Mara and Liz Morrish Introduction: Queer Impact and Practices

Queering Paradigms III

Part V Queer Intimate and Familial Relations

Queering Paradigms III

Pressure Vessels II: An Update on Mental Health among Higher Education Staff in the UK. HEPI Policy Note 23

• Analysis of 17 universities reveals a continued rise in staff access to counselling and occupat... more • Analysis of 17 universities reveals a continued rise in staff access to counselling and occupational health referrals since Pressure Vessels was published in 2019. • From 2016 to 2018, there was an increase of 16% in counselling at the 14 universities for which comparable time series data were obtained. 1 • Over the same period of time, there was a rise of 19% in occupational health referrals at the 16 universities for which comparable time series data were obtained. 2 • From 2009/10 to the end of 2017/18, at those five universities reporting complete data, there was a rise of 172% in staff access to counselling. • At all 17 universities, there has been a rise in staff access to counselling of 155% in recent years. The highest increases were at the University of Bath (500%), the University of Kent (325%) and Keele University (203%).

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Institutional discourse and the cult(ure) of managerialism

http://www.discoversociety.org/2014/05/06/institutional-discourse-and-the-culture-of-managerialism/

The Accident of Accessibility: How the Data of the TEF Creates Neoliberal Subjects

Social Epistemology, 2019

In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed i... more In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed in audit. A new Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF) emerged in 2017 with results determined primarily by proxy data of National Student Survey (NSS) scores, retention data and Longitudinal Educational Outcomes data (LEO). The TEF has been rapidly repurposed in order to shape the behaviour and priorities of both students and academics. The discourse of the TEF legislation, bolstered by studies from HEA/HEPI, assumes the source of inequality of outcome is poor teaching requiring corrective action by universities. Further justification for surveillance and quasi-regulation is borne by appeals to 'value for money' and 'competition'. I argue that what seems to be an arbitrary constellation of proxy data points has in fact been a calculated plan to render universities, staff and students as neoliberal subjects. The accident of accessibility, inasmuch as it overlaps with the neoliberal imperative, has determined which data shall function as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the whole assemblage is cemented by discursive choices which align with neoliberal principles. The Government White Paper Success as a Knowledge Economy, May 2016, forms the text for corpus analysis of keywords, discourses and metaphors.

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Performance Management and the Stifling of Academic Freedom and Knowledge Production

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2016

In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed i... more In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed in audit, particularly of research 'outputs'. Using the data of performance management and training documents, this paper analyses the role of discourse in redefining the meaning of research, and in colonizing a new kind of entrepreneurial, corporate academic. The new regime in universities is characterized by slippage between the audit and disciplinary functions of performance management. We conclude that academic freedom is unlikely to emerge from a system which demands compliance with a regime of unattainable targets and constant surveillance.

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Academic Irregularities

This volume serves as a critical examination of the discourses at play in the higher education sy... more This volume serves as a critical examination of the discourses at play in the higher education system and the ways in which these discourses underpin the transmission of neoliberal values in 21st century universities. Situated within a Critical Discourse Analysis-based framework, the book also draws upon other linguistic approaches, including corpus linguistics and appraisal analysis, to unpack the construction and development of the management style known as managerialism, emergent in the 1990s US and UK higher education systems, and the social dynamics and power relations embedded within the discourses at the heart of managerialism in today’s universities. Each chapter introduces a particular aspect of neoliberal discourse in higher education and uses these multiple linguistic approaches to analyze linguistic data in two case studies and demonstrate these principles at work. This multi-layered systematic linguistic framework allows for a nuanced exploration of neoliberal institutional discourse and its implications for academic labor, offering a critique of the managerial system in higher education but also a larger voice for alternative discursive narratives within the academic community. This important work is a key resource for students and scholars in applied linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, sociology, business and management studies, education, and cultural studies

Marketing the goods

Academic Irregularities, 2019

Academic Freedom and the Disciplinary Regime in the Neoliberal University

The ideology of neoliberal market competition in UK universities has been given added impetus by ... more The ideology of neoliberal market competition in UK universities has been given added impetus by a recent Higher Education and Research Act (2017) and driven by institutional anxieties about league tables and rankings. In this context, universities have been increasingly concerned with reputation and the creation of conformist academic subjects. There have been considerable incentives for managers to disregard the evident stress on academics that the audit culture associated with the Research Excellence Framework and the Teaching Excellence Framework has produced. Universities have turned to close monitoring of tightly delimited academic performance metrics for their staff. The disciplinary apparatus has been strengthened, thus ensuring the compliance of employees and deterring criticism of management. Drawing upon the experiences of the author, who found herself facing allegations of misconduct for taking issue with the appalling pressure this working environment has brought about,...

How gay is football this year?: Identity and intersubjectivity in a women’s sports team

Journal of Language and Sexuality, 2012

Sexual identity categories are often constructed in everyday discourse as relatively fixed and st... more Sexual identity categories are often constructed in everyday discourse as relatively fixed and stable, but such constructions usually do not sit comfortably with people’s lived experiences of their own and others’ sexualities. This paper examines the tactics of intersubjectivity (Bucholtz & Hall 2004) used in the discursive construction of sexual identities among members of a university women’s football team. Using tactics of adequation/distinction, authentication/denaturalisation and authorisation/illegitimation, the women both construct and deconstruct boundaries as they seek to diminish the potential for conflict within the team. Instead, a tolerant and ludic attitude to sexuality is projected, and one which the speakers acknowledge arises from the university context, and at their particular life stage. We conclude that this community of practice has embraced ‘queer temporality’ (Halberstam 2005) — among the women, the possibility of temporary and contingent sexual identities is ...

Gender, desire and identity in a corpus of lesbian erotica

Pressure Vessels: The Epidemic of Poor Mental Health among Higher Education Staff. Occasional Paper 20

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Language and audit culture 2

Academic Irregularities, 2019

Academic identities in the managed university: Neoliberalism and resistance at Newcastle University, UK

The Australian Universities' review, 2017

In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed i... more In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed in audit, particularly of research 'outputs'. Using the data of performance management and training documents, this paper firstly offers an analysis of the role of discourse in redefining the meaning of research, and in colonising a new kind of entrepreneurial, corporate academic. In the second part of the paper, we narrate a case study of resistance to management by metrics. In 2015, Newcastle University managers introduced a new set of research 'expectations' known as 'Raising the Bar', which the academic body were able to act collectively to resist. The collective refused the imposition of individual targets and refused to subordinate academic values to financial ones. There was a successful negotiation with management, and in July 2016, Raising the Bar was rescinded in favour of collegial action to work towards research improvement.

Part I Queering Nationalities and Cultures

Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016

Brexit – is this Schrödinger’s neoliberalism?

The Sociological Review, Jun 28, 2016

New perspectives on language and sexuality

Palgrave Macmillan eBooks, 2007

Part III Queer Activism

Queering Paradigms III

Part II Queer Performances

Queering Paradigms III

The Rise of the Trump Academic

The Sociological Review, Sep 19, 2016

https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/the-rise-of-the-trump-academic.html The

Kathleen O’Mara and Liz Morrish Introduction: Queer Impact and Practices

Queering Paradigms III

Part V Queer Intimate and Familial Relations

Queering Paradigms III

Pressure Vessels II: An Update on Mental Health among Higher Education Staff in the UK. HEPI Policy Note 23

Download

Institutional discourse and the cult(ure) of managerialism

http://www.discoversociety.org/2014/05/06/institutional-discourse-and-the-culture-of-managerialism/

The Accident of Accessibility: How the Data of the TEF Creates Neoliberal Subjects

Social Epistemology, 2019

Download

Performance Management and the Stifling of Academic Freedom and Knowledge Production

Journal of Historical Sociology, 2016

In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed i... more In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed in audit, particularly of research 'outputs'. Using the data of performance management and training documents, this paper analyses the role of discourse in redefining the meaning of research, and in colonizing a new kind of entrepreneurial, corporate academic. The new regime in universities is characterized by slippage between the audit and disciplinary functions of performance management. We conclude that academic freedom is unlikely to emerge from a system which demands compliance with a regime of unattainable targets and constant surveillance.

Download

Academic Irregularities

Marketing the goods

Academic Irregularities, 2019

Academic Freedom and the Disciplinary Regime in the Neoliberal University

How gay is football this year?: Identity and intersubjectivity in a women’s sports team

Journal of Language and Sexuality, 2012

Gender, desire and identity in a corpus of lesbian erotica

Pressure Vessels: The Epidemic of Poor Mental Health among Higher Education Staff. Occasional Paper 20

Download

Language and audit culture 2

Academic Irregularities, 2019

Academic identities in the managed university: Neoliberalism and resistance at Newcastle University, UK

The Australian Universities' review, 2017

In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed i... more In an era of neoliberal reforms, academics in UK universities have become increasingly enmeshed in audit, particularly of research 'outputs'. Using the data of performance management and training documents, this paper firstly offers an analysis of the role of discourse in redefining the meaning of research, and in colonising a new kind of entrepreneurial, corporate academic. In the second part of the paper, we narrate a case study of resistance to management by metrics. In 2015, Newcastle University managers introduced a new set of research 'expectations' known as 'Raising the Bar', which the academic body were able to act collectively to resist. The collective refused the imposition of individual targets and refused to subordinate academic values to financial ones. There was a successful negotiation with management, and in July 2016, Raising the Bar was rescinded in favour of collegial action to work towards research improvement.

Neoliberalism and the academy: have you drunk the Kool-Aid?

A.Mooney and E.Sifaki. The Language of Money and Debt: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp137-162. , 2017

This chapter addresses the connections between neoliberal economic and political developments (ma... more This chapter addresses the connections between neoliberal economic and political developments (marketization, audit culture), and changes to conditions of work in universities, such as performance management and emphasis on entrepreneurship.
The linguistic analysis draws on a unique corpus built from university management training programs such as: Leading High Performance Teams, Change Management, Succession Planning, and Supporting Gold Standard Customer Service. The data is analysed using corpus techniques, enhanced by metaphor and presupposition analysis.
The chapter draws on an ongoing project to collect and analyse data to support the argument that university management resembles a cult, which is having a malign effect on the character of British higher education institutions. Universities now reward only entrepreneurial, self-governing and competitive subjects, who are happy to be objectified within the limits and discourse set for them by the managerial project.

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Vision, values and international excellence

by Helen Sauntson and Liz Morrish

Until recently government policy in the UK has encouraged an expansion of higher education to inc... more Until recently government policy in the UK has encouraged an expansion of higher education to increase participation and with an express aim of creating a more edu cated workforce. This expansion has led to competition between higher education institutions, with students increasingly positioned as consumers and institutions working to improve the extent to which they meet 'consumer demands'.

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Academic Irregularities: Language and Neoliberalism in Higher Education

This book evaluates cultural and discursive changes within UK universities which have evolved wit... more This book evaluates cultural and discursive changes within UK universities which have evolved within an era influenced by neoliberal governmentality from 1981 to the present. The authors make connections between economic and political developments in society, and the changes to conditions of labour and values operating in (largely) western universities. The original contribution of the research presented in this book is to bring the tools offered by applied linguistics to the analysis of the discourses emerging from the marketized, managerial academy where the nature of academic identities and the role of the university in society are being contested. Using some of the tools of applied linguistics (specifically corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis and appraisal analysis), the authors uncover the power relations and contradictions experienced by those working and studying in UK universities. Morrish and Sauntson argue that there is presently a massive reorientation of universities away from their previous mission as serving the public good, as repositories of knowledge, as a refuge from the discipline of the market and capitalism, and governed by the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The discourse analysed throughout the book is more than just a reflection of these changes – it is arguably constitutive of ideological change, and of a new kind of neoliberal, self-managing, subordinate subject.

Liz Morrish

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