Learning to (depoliticize) critique: Critical knowledge and the formation of elite habitus in a predominantly White institution

Abstract

Liberal arts education is highly commodified, yet it also boasts to cultivate critical thinkers and progressive changemakers. What exactly is the kind of “critical mindedness” that liberal arts institutions produce? Drawing from Bourdieuan concepts and recent anthropological work on elite subject formation, I explain how undergraduate students in an elite, predominantly White institution refashion the notion of “critique” as part of their elite habitus. I argue that neoliberal educational institutions enable the new elites to speak about (and advocate for) structural change without ever having to scrutinize their own elite subject position. This depoliticized notion of “doing critique” promises little progressive social transformation and reinforces the hegemonic power of neoliberalism from the inside out. I conclude by highlighting the situatedness of “critique” and its pedagogical potential and limitations.