I get that
It’s that time of the year: academic Twitter has plenty of photos of desks loaded with books used in our new course syllabi, of tastefully curated bookshelves and artwork of equally tastefully decorated university offices. I get that we’re trying to make the most of the rare joys that are left to us in today’s academy. I get that we’re also telling stories to ourselves, ancestral fatigue dissimulated behind anticipation, which may be genuine. I get that in a hostile environment our offices are often the sole refuge and we want them a bit cozy, surrounding us by some loved items, wishing maybe they’ll protect us a bit, even a tiny bit.
What I don’t get though is how we seem oblivious to the effects of this continuous loop of sharing and liking these photos, how we seem to not realize that they are also forms of investments in the institutional, ways of aligning ourselves and each other affectively with the institutional, making the refusal even more alien as affect this time of the year.
My office is overdecorated too. I’ve started my 19th year this June. I’ve scavenged books of retiring colleagues from the dumpster. I’ve brought several of my paintings there. And most importantly, i’ve put a causeuse, a loveseat to take naps after teaching. I had a plant but there wasn’t enough light. For this rentrée, i’ll find a plant that lives in the shadows, as many of us have been. Decorating our offices in ways that make bearable our daily lives in these hostile institutions is not a problem. But sharing them and liking them without some critical comment about their affective effects, how they may create the impression that institutions are welcoming us, (they let us even to pick up our colours, chose statement colours, make accent walls, etc.), they may convince us how they are not lethal places, look how tasteful are our offices and how radical our syllabi.
Sur ce, bonne rentrée!
