Futures and fractures in feminist and queer higher education: introduction

Futures and fractures in feminist and queer higher education is concerned with educational futures, in the sense of the futures of higher education (HE) as well as the future-orientated subjectivities implied in HE practice. These futurities are not homogenous, linear or certain, but rather can be uncertain, stratifying, precarious, or in-between. Educational futures are often imaged as universal, without naming their located specificity: your educational future may not be mine. Universities’ pasts, presents and futures often rely on and reproduce sexist, classist, racist, colonial relations and in a landscape of ‘internationalization’ – of mobility for some staff and student bodies – these relations seem reconfigured rather than resolved (Arday & Mirza, 2018; Bhambra et al., 2018; Leathwood & Read, 2009; Mahony & Zmroczek 1997; Waller et al. 2017). ‘The Future’ is also bound up with unreliable enlightenment promises of progress (increasingly efficient – excellent – exceptional institutions) and neoliberal meritocracy (upwardly mobile responsibilised, entrepreneurial competitively - achieving individuals) (Addison, 2012; Taylor, 2014; Taylor & Scurry, 2011).