Philosophies of Compassion for Post-Neoliberal Universities

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Belonging, Critical Consciousness, and Compassion in Higher Education (Table 1)

Abstract

"As a theoretical and conceptual playground, this paper rattles commonsensical onto-epistemic norms, exploring compassion for creating post-neoliberal futures for/with/in/through higher education professionals.
Compassion, with it varied meanings and enactions, is often defined and contextualized through an individualistic worldview, and instrumentalized toward ends that do not eradicate the systemic reasons that compassion is necessary. This can cause suspicion of, and opposition to compassion as trustworthy phenomena for neoliberal HE transformation. This research reveals iterations of compassion from various social, political, cultural, philosophical, and psychological perspectives. As this work considers compassion, it situates it within neoliberal universities, and theorizes it through ideas of interdependency--all to offer a trustworthy iteration(s) of compassion for theorizing, practicing, disrupting, and transforming neoliberal norms in universities that impose suffering for HE professionals."

Author

• Rachel Keener Killam, University of Tampa
  Presenting Author