The Lazy Academic as Resistance

This paper will theoretically and autobiographically engage the premise that living the "lazy" academic life can be an act of resistance against the totalitarianism of late stage capitalism in academia, as well as a position of solidarity with those who live with neurocognitive disability. Drawing on the presenter's experience as a "model-minority" academic diagnosed with neurocognitive post-exertional malaise caused by long COVID, this paper will critically examine the ways in which the pressure on model minorities to succeed in a culture shaped by a white Protestant work ethic both contributes to disability while simultaneously rendering disabled persons as unproductive and "lazy." Using the work of crip theologian Karen Bray and race and cultural theorist Sarah Ahmed, this paper will propose that living into the disabled "lazy" life can dismantle the ableism of white academia while simultaneously working towards life-giving and generative academic practices.