Philosophy in the Neoliberal University

Dr Nick Trakakis (Australian Catholic University)

The first part of the paper identifies an increasingy disturbing problem in the higher education sector: the shift towards neoliberal policies. An overview of this shift, and its damaging consequences in university teaching and research, will be provided, illustrated in part by the recent publication of John Smyth’s The Toxic University (Palgrave, 2017). The second part of the paper will sketch one possible response to this predicament: the development of what might be called ‘Slow Philosophy’, inspired by the global Slow Movement, and with precedents in the work of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Heidegger. How the principles of Slow can be applied to philosophy and academic research more generally will be further illustrated by the recent publications of Michelle Boulous Walker’s Slow Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2017) and Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber’s The Slow Professor (University of Toronto Press, 2016).