Vision of Knowledge and Affective Facts: College Teaching in US State Higher Education Legislation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Posthuman Reimaginings of Teaching and Teacher Education (Table 8)

Abstract

In this inquiry I look into portions of a recently enacted higher education law in one US state to show how affective facts find their way into structural operations of power. I use diffractive discourse analysis to highlight how through affectively generalizing language and requiring public access to the inner workings of college classrooms, this law, though not explicitly prohibiting specific content, uses threat to promote a vision of knowledge as apolitical facts, both to justify its existence, and to ensure compliance. Following Massumi (2025), I argue the necessity of frameworks that reflect conventional logic’s inability to hold sway over affective facts in order to understand the realities of the current higher education policy landscape.

Author

• Anastasia Y. Goodwin, Vanderbilt University