Title

(S)exist (T)echnology (E)levating (M)asculinity in Higher Education

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-16-2018

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Sociology

Faculty Sponsor

Arthur Scarritt

Abstract

While students attend higher education in pursuit of upward mobility, the rise of academic capitalism has motivated universities to prioritize revenue generation over students’ best interests (Rhodes and Slaughter 2004; Saunders 2007). Boise State University, like other public universities, has adopted a neoliberal business model that favors free-market competition and supports ideologies that concentrate on individualism (Davis 2016). The university now speciously pedestals male-dominated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the football program over other programs and disciplines. The marketing of college football to the "ideal student" associates hypermasculinity with success in academia and devalues femininity in STEM education causing students to naturalize male-dominance in higher education. While Boise State receives large donations for its football and STEM programs, their expenditures consistently surpass their budget. The university, in turn, heavily relies on students’ tuition to subsidize the cost of doing business. This research analyzes how the university creates and applies a neoliberal language of inclusion to market itself to potential customers while simultaneously maintaining gender segregation within academics.

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