Sounding silly, sounding together.
Cracking professionalism at the neoliberal university

This audio paper will explore the effects of neoliberalisation on the social field of the
university, and offers constructive methods for building togetherness on campus.
With a variety of theories, ranging from ecological frameworks of species
entanglement, to Marxist critiques of cognitive labour and bureaucracy, I will forge links
between the neoliberalisation of academic scholarship, and an increase of
professionalism in our social relations at the university, reducing solidarity and
leading to social disconnect. The paper will then explore constructive practices to
tackle these issues, deriving methods from a variety of critical theorists on play and non-
verbal attunement as radical actions for collectivising. With these theories I will form a
group activity using strategies of play, silliness and soundmaking to form a crack in the
codes of professionalism.

The paper uses different methods of storytelling, oscillating between the formalities of
academic knowledge production and personal meanderings and subjectivities, la
la las and fart sounds. It includes recordings from a workshop practising these ideas
and interviews with students and tutors on their own experiences. The linear order of
a thesis may be subverted as an ode to meandering and discovery along the
wobbly paths of research.