Marketing Difference: Two Teachable Moments at the Intersection of the Neoliberal University and Geopolitics

Abstract

Abstract:This article looks at the effects the neoliberal university has on feminist pedagogy when it is practised in a programme that stresses geopolitical differences. The material for the study comes from my experience as a teacher of a gender studies class for a US study abroad programme based in Prague, Czech Republic. The richly researched paradoxes of doing feminist pedagogy in the neoliberal university assume fi rm contours when the geopolitical location of both those 'teaching' and those 'taught' becomes the focus and indeed the 'commodity' to be sold. In my article, I focus on my situation as a teacher in an increasingly precarious educational environment in the Czech Republic, exacerbated by the specifi c framing of the US-based programme and its economic-moral rationality. I refl ect on the ethical discontents inadvertently produced by the teaching experience and related commodifi cation of 'difference'. I argue that the geopolitical context of that commodifi cation is crucial for understanding the local forms and impact of the neoliberal university. The contested standing of gender studies in the Czech Republic, which has been shown to stem in part from the post-1989 developments, intersects with the reform of the Czech science system. By exploring how this setting affects the micro-level of class dynamics and lesson content I show that there is a need to study the repercussions of the neoliberal university as geopolitically located.

Feministische Visionen vor und nach 1989

“…The dominant line of argument followed neo-liberal reasoning and stressed declining student enrollment, presumed unsustainability of the program, and anticipated difficulties in the graduates' job placements. These arguments were consistent with the general neoliberal tenor of the broader debates about the purpose of higher education at the time (and today), as analyzed by Blanka Nyklová (2017Nyklová ( , 2018. While the Faculty Dean struck a protective attitude towards Gender Studies academic staff, recognizing their research Oates-Indruchová (2011), who was a member of the Brno team in its early years.…”

“…Czech feminist historiographers have also made a major mark on the field, especially with publications on the women's movement and gender issues in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries (Burešová 2001, Jusová 2002, Malečková 2016, under state socialism (Nečasová 2011, Havelková and Oates-Indruchová 2014, Wagnerová 2017, as well as in the context of post-socialism (Kolářová 2014, Jusová andŠiklová 2016). Other fields of research include critical studies on masculinities (Šmídová 1999, 2016), LGBT studies (Sokolová 2005, Sloboda 2015, queer and disability studies (Kolářová 2019), sexuality studies (Dvořáčková 2008, Lišková 2009, discrimination against Roma women (Sokolová 2004), gender and language (Valdrová 2016), childcare and gender (Hašková and Dudová 2020), gender inequalities in education (Jarkovská 2013, Smetáčková 2016, Fárová 2018, science and gender (Linková and Červinková 2011), feminist art (Pachmanová 2009(Pachmanová , Štefková 2016, feminist criminology (Nedbálková 2006), as well as neoliberalism and gender (Nyklová 2017(Nyklová , 2018.…”

“…Věra Eliášová, Simona Fojtová, and Martina Horáková's 2014 essay focuses specifically on Brno and on the role played by the Masaryk University's English and American Studies students in the post-1989 discussions concerning gender studies. 1 In terms of more recent assessments, Blanka Nyklová's (2017Nyklová's ( , 2018 reflections concerning the impact of the neoliberalization of Czech universities on Gender Studies are especially relevant. In reviewing literature that has been published on the topic, the main dilemmas faced by the early Czech Gender Studies scholars were found to include: 1) Absence of awareness about and dismissal of feminism in pre-1989 socialist Czechoslovakia, as well as direct hostility toward feminism on the part of the Czech public and many Czech academics post-1989.…”

Marketing model of promotion of remote education by modern university

“…The foundations and practical solutions in the sphere of marketing of higher educational services and activation of marketing activities of universities as a specific direction of non-profit marketing are viewed in the works of Assimakopoulos et al (2017), Boldyreva and Yambyshev (2017), Danakin et al (2016), Gregory-Smith et al (2017), Howarth et al (2017), Kalimullin and Dobrotvorskaya (2016), Malarvizhi et al (2017), Nyklová (2017), Peruta and Shields (2018), Pressey (2017), Rutter et al (2017), Sekerin et al (2018), Taecharungroj (2017), Wiyono et al (2017).…”