Disappearing Acts

The increasing popularity of academic "quit lit" has energized discussions of the affective difficulties of academia, with much of the focus on the topic of grief. This essay asks whether our conversations about the emotional labor of higher education might benefit from a shift away from understanding this grief as unique to the profession. What new pathways for collective action and care might open up if we understood our work in academia, particularly our teaching, as sharing many qualities with the work performed by others? I argue that if we understand teaching as a performance, and ask what it therefore shares with the performances, labor, and work of others, we can gain an expanded and more productive understanding not just of the affective dimensions of our profession but of our grief as well.