Neoliberalism, Gender and Sexuality

A. Seminar Series: New Perspectives on Language and Sexual Identity (2007)

Project title: Neoliberalism, Gender and Sexuality: The Discursive Limits of Equality in Higher Education.
Project leaders: Liz Morrish and Helen Sauntson
Funded by: The University of Birmingham Deans' Funding Initiative

Description: This seminar series ran through the spring of 2009 and investigated a number of areas of concern, regarding gender and sexuality, which are identifiable in the current British higher education environment. The series explored how current dominant neoliberal discourses, which emphasise the commodification of higher education in the UK, function to set limits upon equality. Ironically, while these discourses often suggest a widening of opportunities within higher education with an emphasis upon unlimited individual freedom and choice, the lived experience can be rather different for women and sexual minorities. The seminar series will explored the impact such discourses are having upon gender and sexuality identities and practices in the academy. The aims of the seminar series to were:

• identify the characteristics of neoliberal discourse and its influence in the UK academy
• identify effects which impact on women, sexual minorities and gender/sexuality scholarship
• examine effects of on constituencies of scholars who are marginalised by neoliberal discourse
• examine patterns of fiscal loss or reward as a result of neoliberal strategies of HEI management and planning.

There will be an Introductory session followed by three seminars in the series. Each seminar will consist of a presentation by a keynote speaker followed by a structured discussion between the keynote speaker and two or three discussants. There will be time for general open discussion and opportunities for participants to talk informally.

B. Special issue of a journal: LATISS (Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences).

Editors: Dr Helen Sauntson and Dr Liz Morrish
Publication date: Autumn 2010

Description: This special issue sets out to investigate a number of areas of concern, regarding gender and sexuality, which are identifiable in the current British higher education environment. We argue that current dominant neoliberal discourses, which emphasise the commodification of higher education in the UK, function to set limits upon equality. Ironically, while these discourses often suggest a widening of opportunities within higher education with an emphasis upon unlimited individual freedom and choice, the lived experience can be rather different for women and sexual minorities. The proposed special issue will explore the impact such discourses are having upon gender and sexuality identities and practices in the academy.

Because these issues are emergent, they have only recently begun to receive academic attention, therefore a special issue which functions to generate debate and inspire new discussion and research seems timely and appropriate.

C. Analysis of Mission Statements of UK Universities.

Output: Book Chapter.
Authors: Helen Sauntson and Liz Morrish.
Publication Date: 2010.
Title: Vision, values and international excellence: The products that university mission statements sell to students. In Molesworth Mike, Nixon, Elizabeth and Scullion, Richard (Eds). The Marketisation of UK Higher Education and the Student as Consumer. London: Routledge. Pp73-85

Description: This chapter aims to examine the impact of mutually reinforcing discourses of neoliberalism and marketization on universities in the UK. We take as a particular case study mission statements – what they represent and what they communicate, and we present as evidence the analysis of a detailed corpus linguistic analysis of all of the available mission statements for UK universities in the Russell Group, 1994 Group and Million and group. We find the dominance of a neoliberal discourse, in which marketisation, commodification and globalisation play key roles, and this therefore helps to construct students as consumers of university products. Furthermore we question the extent to which mission statements represent uniqueness, or whether this claim is tempered by a kind of discursive uniformity and standardization. Some of the other questions asked in this chapter are:

• How does the neoliberal business-facing university discursively construct its identity, and, moreover, its students and graduates? 
• Are there any differences in how statements market the university to students according to UK university groupings of Russell group, 1994 group and Million+ group (analogous to the Carnegie Classification used by Morphew and Hartley, 2006)?
• Are students constructed or positioned in particular ways in the statements (e.g. as consumers, units of profit, as products of the university, or combinations of positions)?
• Are there any tensions or contradictions between the discourses of the mission statements? Is there any evidence of resistance or challenge to dominant discursive constructions of the neoliberal university?

This chapter uses corpus linguistic analysis to investigate the discourse of mission statements across three groups of UK universities.

D. Analysis of Diversity Statements in UK and US Universities

Authors: Liz Morrish and Kathleen O'Mara.
Publication date: 2010
Title: Glass Half Full or Half Empty?: A Comparison of Diversity Statements among Russell group UK vs US Research Universities International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Volume 10, Issue Three, pp.243-260

Description: In this paper we use corpus linguistic methods to examine why lgbtq subjects are poorly recognised within diversity statements of UK and US research universities. While universities position diversity as a marketable signifier, we argue that queerness is rendered invisible, lest its manifestation bring universities into disrepute. Sexual orientation appears as a private or lifestyle choice, and universities do not see it as part of their mission to enable students or employees to realize difference. We wish to propose that the language used in diversity statements should acknowledge notions of real inclusion and empowerment of those queers who work within them.