The slow scholar in the accelerated university: Slowness as solidarity

This collaborative chapter explores the concept of slow scholarship and the slow scholar in the context of the accelerated landscape of contemporary universities. The neoliberal university of today demands high productivity and efficiency within compressed time frames, leaves little room for reflective scholarly thinking or practice, and disregards scholarship’s human and relational aspects. Based on a series of webinars and workshop activities with international scholars within higher education philosophy and theory, the chapter engages the topic of slowness as a mode of scholarship and of being a scholar in a present-day university. Through a series of poetic explorations and theoretical discussions, the chapter points towards alternative ways to inhabit the contemporary university, to create new possibilities for slow scholarship, and to foster a sense of solidarity among scholars. The chapter questions how scholars can think, practise, and exist in a system that demands speed and productivity and asks if it is possible to strike a balance between accelerated productivity and academic well-being. It argues that the contemporary neoliberal university requires scholars to excel at work, rather than to be well and that this is unsustainable. Slow scholarship, on the other hand, foregrounds the value of taking time to think, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversations and collaborations.

By exploring the challenges and possibilities of slow scholarship, the authors aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of academic work in the accelerated university and to encourage an approach to scholarship based on sustainability and solidarity. Ultimately, the chapter argues that slow scholarship offers a powerful counter-narrative to the dominant culture of speed and productivity which has the potential to transform not only the way we work as scholars but also the systems and structures that shape the university as an institution.