“Where Woke Goes To Die”: Teaching Through Routine Crisis in Florida

Abstract

To fight against “wokeness” in higher education, Florida’s conservative-led government passed multiple laws that restrict the ability of faculty to teach and students to learn at the state’s public colleges and universities. This legislation created a learning environment hostile to discussions of race, diversity, gender, and other “controversial” topics.  In this article, I summarize some of the political challenges currently facing Florida’s faculty and argue that recent education policies have contributed to a sense of routine crisis among faculty.  I discuss how this crisis, characterized by disorientation, distrust, and disillusion, negatively affects faculty morale and their ability to teach effectively.