Affective States of Academics: The Dissolving Fantasy of the ‘Good Academy’

ABSTRACT

Drawing on the affective trajectories of academics in social science and humanities departments, this article asks how they imagine a ‘good academy’ and how they navigate the tension between that imagination and the demands of contemporary university regulations. Based on sixteen in‐depth interviews with early‐career researchers in Ankara, Turkey, it traces how academics narrate their affective relationship with the academy. Bringing together Berlant's conceptualisation of cruel optimism and Ngai's analysis of low‐key affective states such as ugly feelings, the article shows that the attachment to the good academy is narrated as something that obstructs flourishing due to the institutional demands in higher education. This in‐betweenness is analysed in relation to loosening attachment to the academy that is produced by a mood of irritation.