Current Problems with the Academic Industrial Complex

What is the Academic Industrial Complex?

The term industrial complex was first developed to describe the

military industrial complex, then it was applied to mass
incarceration within the united states to describe the prison
industrial complex. Now the term is being applied to the non-profit
industrial complex, the medical industrial complex, and the academic
industrial complex. In this student-festo we are interested
specifically in the academic industrial complex, yet we think it is
important to mention the military, medical, prison, and non-profit
industrial complexes because all of these social networks intersect
and mutually reinforce one another.

To call a social sitesuch as academia or medicinean industrial

complex is to call attention to the ways that its daily operation
relies on subjugation, oppression, and settler colonialism. For
example, the medical industrial complex relies on 1. objectifying
bodies and diseases 2. commodifying and gatekeeping medical knowledge
3. making sure that some knowledgelike midwifery and indigenous
healing practicesare marked as non-scientific, childish, and not
really knowledge at all. A special feature of industrial complexes is
that they become the only imaginable alternative. For example, in our
society, many people find it hard to imagine an alternative to the
u.s. current criminal justice system and prison regime.

So, pulling all of this together, we can say that the academic
industrial complex is the set of political & social relationships
that make universities seem like the only places where valid
knowledge can be produced. Academics within this industrial complex
make a living by commodifying words and ideas. They profit from
writing about oppression using very specific, academically-sanctioned
language.

To be in the academic industrial complex, you have to be fluent in

its theoretical language and you sure as hell have to play into the
rules of white, heteronormative respectability. [side note: why are
academics always wearing black, gray, and brown? Can academics not
enjoy color? Can academics not enjoy life? Is color too primitive
or queer for you all?] The academic industrial complex, like all
other complexes, operates using a hierarchy within which the most
privileged knowledge is the knowledge produced by cis-, straight,
white guys who can forget they have bodies and can afford the cuban
cigars they smoke while sitting in armchairs.

#1 Inaccessibility: The academic industrial complex is really fucking

inaccessible: financially, mentally, physically. By this, we mean
that the rules and procedures that govern universities disadvantage
poor and working-class people, neurologically diverse and differently
abled peoples, people of color & Indigenous people, queer people,
trans and genderqueer people, undocumented people, and/or women.
Academia is inaccessible for many reasons: from over-priced books and
tuition, to lack of accommodations for those who are neurologically
diverse and differently abled, to the daily microaggressions directed
towards black, brown, queer, trans/genderqueer, and feminine bodies.

Some of us read some really heavy shit on a daily basis, some of us

are in classes where professors ignore the really heavy shit going
on. Either way, we are not encouraged to self-care, take time off,
cry, laugh, have sex. We are expected to be academic robots who can
easily switch between topics and tune out our realities. Most of us
cannot do this. Most of us cannot afford to do this.

#2 Disembodiment:
The written textespecially in english is so disembodied, flat, and
linear. Yet, it is given precedence within the academic industrial
complex. Engaging with assignments in the written form ostracizes us
from our own bodies, the very bodies that academia marks as
unacademic, unruly, and morally suspect. Academia wants us to
forget our bodies, yet it cant seem to look past the way our clothes
may not match the genitals they assume we have.

Academia expects us to inhabit our minds. Think, but dont feel too
much. Our words and theories are supposed to come from an objective,
rational, unfeeling, unbodily place within usbut this place does not
exist. Those who have the privilege of accessing disembodiment tend
to be white, cis-, straight, middle- to upper- class, AMAB, Christian
males. Even when we attempt to place our bodies within our words and
theories, our knowledge is counted as less-than and it only gets
eye-rolls. We are relegated to the humanities, where funding is cut
and redirected towards STEM.
Yet, on the rare occasion that we find ourselves temporarily
reflected back by a theorywe wonder why this theory is more valid
than the experience we had walking down the street, on the bus, or in
the bedroom.

Why are our experiences more valid when they are flatten,
patternized, and theorized on by someone who holds a PhD?? Why isnt
our bodily existence enough? Why do we talk about a theory on
violence against trans women of color more than we talk about the
embodied lives of trans women of color?

#3 Gatekeeping:

Academic discourses are confusing AF. This is on purpose. It is to

exclude certain groups of people. For example, academics theorize on
the prison industrial complex using Foucauldian theory, yet, who is
this theory for?? It certainly isnt for the people who are actually
incarcerated. Because, can we really expect an incarcerated queer
youth who hasnt finished high school to give a fuck about Foucault
or to understand wtf Foucault means by technologies of the self or
even discourse? No.

The academic industrial complex is founded in and maintained as a

mode of gatekeeping. Who are the people who are granted access to
which ideas? Who is being kept out? Even in disobedient fields,
pressures from the academic industrial complex cause theory to be
inaccessible to those who have not had the background and training in
reading, writing, and interpreting theory. Why should we reading a
$30+ text by a theorist with limited adjacency to what they are
actually writing about when there is a zine posted online for free by
someone who lives what they are writing about everyday? In other
words, should we read theory about queer youth that are incarcerated,
or should we call up those queer youth, write them letters, read
their zines?

#4 Settler Colonialism:

By saying that the academic industrial complex is a settler colonial

structurewe mean that:
1. the doctrine of discovery is integral to its operation
2. it profits from the continuing occupation of indigenous lands as
well as the continuance of white supremacy and heteronormativity.
The doctrine of discovery within the academic industrial complex is
present when professors expect us to come up with new ideas, cite
other peoples ideas, or claim that a piece of reading was
particularly innovative. The doctrine of discovery justifies the
commodification of knowledge (books, articles, tuition, etc.) because
it claims that words and theories can be owned by one individual.

Because knowledge can be owned, the academic industrial complex

profits from selling knowledge to students, i.e. tuition, books,
articles, subscriptions, lab fees, course, fees, etc. Students are
expected to pay tuition + upwards of $600 dollars per year on course
materials and fees. This is unrealistic for a lot of us.

Knowledge cannot and should not be owned by one person. Knowledge is

always a community endeavor and resource.

How to end the supremacy of the academic industrial complex one credit
hour at a time:

A decolonial classroom would not only be a classroom. Learning can

happen anywhere. In fact, most learning takes place in the world
outside of academia, where the bullshit we theorize about is
experienced.

Decenter the English language. Subvert the power of the linear

written word by engaging predominantly with artifacts that center
embodied experiences, like photographs, zines, poems, prose,
narratives, blogs, music, etc.

Decolonizing the classroom is about centering bodily, experiential

knowledge in order to demonstrate the phallacy of mind/body dualism.

Assign work only to be done in epistemic communities, or group

settings. Sitting alone behind computer screens to type linear,
written-word documents ensures that students will dissociate from
their bodies and lives. Theories that are produced when we are not in
our bodies are not useful to people outside of the academic
industrial complex.

Subvert the capitalist function of the academic industrial complex by

using course materials that are not cost-prohibitive for students.
All knowledge should be free! Course materials should be free and
accessible to those who cannot afford tuition or cannot enter
universities for other reasons.

Focus specifically de-academilizing the language used in classrooms.

Theorizing using language and concepts that are not commonsense or
intuitive is gatekeeping. It is another way to ensure that academia
will be inaccessible to the most marginalized in society. Those of us
who work (sometimes multiple jobs), participate in the community,
have children, need self care, etc. cannot and will not spend 3+
hours reading and re-reading one article just because the author
chose to use lofty language and name-drop other members of their
theory club. This is a club that we do not want to be a part of as it
currently stands. This is a club that needs to be smashed to fucking
pieces.

Disrupting the supremacy of the academic industrial complex is about

decentering theory that is produced by people holding PhDs. Often
times, scholars are writing about experiences that they are far
removed from..and this is something we need to question on a daily
basis. Should a cis-, white scholar who has never engaged in sex work
be writing about trans women of color who engages in sex work? If so,
why? What purpose is this theory that is removed from bodily, lived
experience serving? Lurking behind these questions is the realization
that privileged people maintain their positions within the academy by
writing theory on the very groups of people that are kept from
entering the academy; by writing theories on the most marginalized
groups in society, they get rid of the need for marginalized people
to actually be in the academy writing about themselves for themselves.
So, while many privileged academics would claim to be helping or at
least attempting to help, they are likely to end up perpetuating the
very marginalization and oppression they claim to be fighting
against. This is why we must decenter theory and center the lived
experiences of peoples across many different societal locations. You
should not have to be a part of an institution just to be recognized
and heard.

Decolonizing the classroom necessarily entails critically analyzing,

questioning and historicizing academic norms in order to subvert them
and more closer to a classroom in which students feel liberated and
inspired by the course material.