Dreaming of "Nowhere": A Co-Autoethnographic Exploration of Utopia-Dystopia in the Academy

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Living the Dystopian-Utopian Tension as Praxis: Transformative Dreaming With/in/for Education and Educational Research

Abstract

In various places throughout the United States, people are experiencing threats to basic necessities like healthy food, clean water, and medical care. Xenophobia, racism, misogyny and homophobia are reinforced by hyper-surveillance, hyper-policing, discrimination and violence against minority groups and women. As Giroux (2017) explains, “A culture of cruelty has become the mood of our times -- a spectral lack of compassion that hovers over the ruins of democracy” (n.p.). Indeed, not even children are entitled to basic necessities, as was underscored when Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos crudely mocked the national school lunch program that provides healthy nutrition for millions of public school children daily. In this context, it seems almost careless to consider the relationship between public schools and utopian dreams from our seats in the “ivory tower”. Yet, as critical educators in public institutions that are becoming increasingly neoliberal, we find ourselves in a state of “frustration, confusion, self-doubt and disenchantment of having to work with competing agendas and priorities, both personal and institutional” (Jubas & Kawalilak, 2012, p. 2). Produce more scholarship and grants, but teach more or larger classes. Gain international acclaim, but provide increasing service. Meanwhile, students suffer as tuition and fees rise, curriculum is altered to meet the demands of external accrediting bodies, and the job market even for advanced degree holders retracts.

We entered the academy because of its potential for catalyzing new realities, even as this is feeling more elusive by the day. Like Freire (2007) we are guided by hope that education can sow the seeds of a more humane world. However, we must first attend to our individual workplaces because educational institutions that are unjust are hypocritical and can never lead to the humanizing change we desire (Freire, 2007). In this paper, we sort through the tensions and complexities of being midcareer critical scholars in rapidly changing public universities. We use co/autoethnography (Coia & Taylor, 2009) to examine personal narratives chronicling our decade of experiences pre- and post-tenure. We explore utopia-dystopia in the changing contexts of the classroom, personnel processes, and scholarly expectations. Combining Freire’s notion of utopia with Bauman’s concept of “retrotopia” we look forward and backward, bringing to the surface the ways dystopian conditions activate tacit “theories of change” (Tuck & Yang, 2014). We pay attention to critical encounters that illustrate the persistence of utopian dreams despite and because of dystopian realities. We draw forth implications for praxis by attending to the etymological roots of “utopia” which imply not a “good” or place, but rather “no” place, i.e., “nowhere.” (Utopia, n.d.) We demonstrate the significance of conceptualizing “utopia” not as a destination but as a process that is always implied in dystopia. We illustrate, “even in challenging times and places it is possible to find and create opportunities to survive and thrive, individually and collectively” (Jubas & Kawalilak, 2012, p. 2), which lends new importance to the fostering and nurturing “dreams” in educating for social change.

Authors

• Tricia M. Kress, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Robert Lewis Lake, Georgia Southern University