Abstract

This article draws upon the 2020 review commissioned by the University of Strathclyde in the UK into the sexual misconduct of an academic staff member, Kevin O’Gorman, to examine competing and multi-varied forms of precarity in UK higher education. It considers how precarity as a political condition has the ability to shift and attach to different kinds of structures and bodies, including institutions. The case at Strathclyde helps to illustrate how a claim to precarity can be appropriated by an institution, while simultaneously divesting this term of meaning and attachment to human experience. The article builds on this examination of precarity to investigate the precarious status of knowledge in relation to violence. It argues that despite claims to want to know, institutional failure to understand and act on sexual misconduct is a form of wilful ignorance and an exertion of epistemological power that protects the institution.

摘要

本文借鉴了 2020 年由英国斯特拉斯克莱德大学委托对学术人员凯文·奥戈尔曼 (Kevin O'Gorman) 的不当性行为进行的审查，以研究英国高等教育中竞争性和多种形式的不稳定性。它考虑了作为一种政治条件的不稳定性如何能够转移和附着于不同类型的结构和机构，包括机构。Strathclyde 的案例有助于说明一个机构如何利用对不稳定的主张，同时剥离这个术语的意义和对人类经验的依恋。本文以对不稳定性的研究为基础，调查与暴力相关的知识的不稳定性。它争辩说，尽管声称想知道，