Speculations on force and form: resisting the neurotypical in the neoliberal university

Abstract

Can reframing a thesis in terms of what it can do rather than what it is generate a joyful-artful engagement with the PhD process and engender a more response-able relationship with the world? In this tentative exemplification of the speculative potential of force and form, the very act of writing emerges as a powerful antidote to constraints of the neoliberal university. Exploring writing as immanent doing, Erin Manning’s philosophical projects of research-creation, artfulness and thought in motion find expression through the ordinary, the everyday and the mundane. By refusing to engage in the dis-abling constraints prescribed by institutional expectations of doctoral study, the writing process takes on a liveliness, a jouissance, that has the potential to transcend and transform. In a process of reimagining who and what is valued beyond the normative and the neurotypical, the thesis works to trouble and challenge the colonial structures that continue to exclude and silence.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Plymouth
Supervisor	Ken Gale (Director of Studies (First Supervisor)) & Carole Baker (Other Supervisor)