Slide 3: Prelude: On Theory Fatigue: Honoring Academic Labour

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Slide 3: Prelude: On Theory Fatigue: Honoring Academic Labour

Script: I'd like to address the phenomenon of 'theory fatigue,' a condition many educators and researchers are all too familiar with. We find ourselves overwhelmed by both paid and unpaid demands, from uncompensated peer-reviewed publications to numerous committee obligations that distract us from our true passions. When I speak today, it is with deep respect for our shared experiences. As Bifo Berardi observes, educators are increasingly burnt out and fatigued, while the technological tools we've created grow smarter and more autonomous. This disparity places tremendous stress on us as we struggle to keep up with rapid technological advancements. Recognizing this fatigue is the first step toward addressing it. We must find ways to balance our human capacities with the capabilities of the technologies we use. Theory fatigue reflects a saturation of thought that stifles inspiration. It urges us to re-engage with the dynamic process of thinking, finding new ways to activate and maintain responsive, vibrant thought.

References from Presentation (see below)

'Bifo' Berardi - After the Future:

• "Precariousness is itself a precarious notion, because it defines its object in an approximate manner, but also because from this notion derive paradoxical, self-contradictory, in other words precarious strategies"​​.

• "The word 'precariat' generally stands for the area of work that is no longer definable by fixed rules relative to the labor relation, to salary and the length of the working day"​​.

'Bifo' Berardi - The Soul at Work:

• "The neoliberal values presented in the 1980s and 1990s as vectors of independence and self-entrepreneurship revealed themselves to be manifestations of a new form of slavery producing insecurity and most of all a psychological catastrophe"​​.

• "Precariousness is not a particular element of the social relation, but the dark core of the capitalist production in the sphere of the network where a flow of fragmented recombinant info-labor circulates"​​.

Rosi Braidotti - The Posthuman:

• "The precariousness of younger staff members is a source of special concern"​​.

• "The crisis of the human and its posthuman fallout has dire consequences for the academic field most closely associated with it – the Humanities"​​.

'Bifo' Berardi - Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide:

• "Precarity is the general condition of semio-workers. The essential feature of precarity in the social sphere is not the loss of regularity in the labour relation, since labour has always been more or less precarious, notwithstanding legal regulations"​​.

• "Capital no longer pays for the availability of a worker to be exploited for a long period of time; it no longer pays a salary that covers the entire range of economic needs of a person who works"​​.

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