Academicus Otiosus: The Lazy Academic

The concern is not about the value of applied knowledge, which is self-evident. The risk lies in treating contributions to “how” knowledge as interchangeable with contributions to “what” knowledge.

February 26, 2026

Academicus Otiosus: The Lazy Academic 
Your Scholarly Digest 26th February, 2026

Become a member of Scholar Square, our online digital community where we put our ethos into practice - and get access to all editions of The Scholarly Letter for free.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to receive weekly letters rooted in curiosity and connection.
 
Know someone who will enjoy The Scholarly Letter? Forward it to them.

All previous editions of The Letter are available on our website.

Online Thumbnail Credits: National Gallery of Art Open Access Collection

Hi Scholar,

Today’s issue may feel a little heavy. Our columns speak about pressure, frustration, the struggles of trying to think, create, and inquire within the current academic system. 

But everything we write comes from a place of hope – and perhaps even optimism for the work we all believe in.

So before you begin, we wanted to share this with you:

❝

Education is an act of love, and thus an act of courage. It cannot fear the analysis of reality or, under pain of revealing itself as a farce, avoid creative discussion.

– Paulo Freire in Education for Critical Consciousness

BRAIN FOOD

Academicus Otiosus: The Lazy Academic 

Production, producers, and productivity are core neoliberal commitments whose all-consuming effect is the configuration of individuals as economic beings. Far from operating merely as a macro-regime governing states and institutions, neoliberalism has infiltrated the micropractices of everyday life. Within neoliberal higher education, marked by an obsession with measurement, productivity, and atomization, the figure of the academic now resembles what Foucault described as homo economicus.

The academic as homo economicus is committed to producing research that either directly generates revenue or, at the very least, yields measurable outputs of productivity. Their academic freedom is displaced by academic management, such that the only freedom they have available to them is the freedom to reproduce the status quo. Disruption from the homo economicus academic may be tolerated, but only if it can be monetised. Researchers must not only produce knowledge but also market themselves and their work.

Under these conditions, what recourse remains for the academic within the neoliberal university? How might one resist the figure of the homo economicus – the productive, self-optimising researcher?

Ryan Evely Gildersleeve proposes the possibility of becoming academicus otiosus: the lazy academic.

Scholar, Continue Reading?

New subscribers receive 30 days of full access, no card required.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

Full access includes:

  • • 🍎The Digest (this Letter)
  • • 🍏The Essay (next week's Letter)
  • • Access to the entire archive