Administrative life in the time before crisis: affect and the codependence of data and fear

Abstract

In this article, we study the administrator at Crisis State University, a collaged actor and American institution. Affect, specifically fear and anxiety, is our entry point to unfold the contradiction and tension within what were explained as data-driven decisions during one particular crisis time, COVID-19. We ask: in what ways do data, fear, and anxiety articulate each other in acts of preemption? Our posthuman analysis traces lines of affect and potential across multiple scales, collaging a motley collection of data including interviews with administrators, crisis communications, and news articles. The paper’s approach and analysis open space for novel approaches to examining administrative decision-making in higher education in this age of crisis and data ordinariness. We argue that administrative decision-making, named data-driven, is not driven primarily by data, but rather responds to affects of fear and anxiety. Therefore, we must move away from a commonsense belief that administrator decisions are or should be data-driven, as this common sense reinforces the guiding role of fear and anxiety. We contend that affects of fear and anxiety drive preemptive academic capitalism, thus examining affect is key to imagining and negotiating subversive modes of living beyond this version of academic capitalism.