Academic zombies: a failure of resistance or a means of survival?

Successive waves of neoliberal reforms to higher education have taken their toll on the academy. This paper uses the zombie metaphor to discuss the causes and consequences of organisational change on Australian academics as a background to exploring zombiefication as a form of passive resistance and survival. The paper uses the literature and empirical research to chronicle the disintegration of the academic workforce and with it, the idea of a university as a social institution. The paper concludes with the author’s reflection of her own desire to be emancipated from zombiedom.