LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article explores affective alignment and epistemic polarization in the field of feminist research, resulting from the neoliberalization of the universities and a performance-oriented research economy. Previous research has described and analysed the ‘epistemic splitting’ that feminist scholars engage in to live up to standardized performance measures and be perceived as ‘proper knowers’ in the neoliberalized university. This article is based on data from 26 interviews with feminist academics, presented as 5 composites, that let us in on their practices and socially organized experiences within the neoliberalized academy. I draw on Sarah Ahmed’s theory of affective alignments to analyse how practices of epistemic splitting are affectively instigated and impelled.