The living dead are everywhere ¨C from zombie apocalypse thrillers to ¡°zomcoms¡±, with some even starring in Jane Austen adaptations.

Now the shambling?hordes of the undead have invaded academia thanks to the debut of a ¡°zombie performance pedagogy group¡± at a UK academic conference.

The gruesome?antics at Advance HE¡¯s annual teaching and learning conference, which took place in Birmingham?from 3?to 5?July, are the brainchild of Stella Jones-Devitt, head of student evaluation and research at Sheffield Hallam University, who believes zombies are a useful way to explain the uncritical acceptance of managerial-led policies in higher education.

In her session on 4 July, Ms Jones-Devitt, assisted by academics from Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Chester,?was scheduled to present the descent of a fictional scholar ¨C ?¨C into academic ¡°zombiedom¡± over the course of 28 days as she seeks to gain a teaching excellence framework gold award for her institution.

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Her gradual transformation was set to be illustrated with tweets from the infected academic before a personal appearance from the now-undead scholar.

¡°Many people feel we are in quite a dystopian place in higher education,¡± said Ms Jones-Devitt, who?added that?she was inspired to pursue her zombie critique against ¡°sameness¡± in higher education by the films of George A. Romero, who directed the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead.

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¡°His films have been reclaimed as commentaries on social justice, and I was interested in how processes might make people, in this case, staff and students, ¡®zombie-like¡¯,¡± she continued, noting that zombies are characterised by their ¡°unthinking urge to consume¡±.

Ms Jones-Devitt believed that certain models of teaching proved not to work are also zombie-like as they ¡°refuse to die and keep coming back¡±, while ¡°zombie leadership¡± can see institutions progress in a near-catatonic state because they do not encourage innovation.

The?transformation of Dr Vendettas into a jargon-babbling zombie was designed to show how creative academics can lose their sense of self under a barrage of managerial edicts, said Ms Jones-Devitt, who?added that she wanted to illustrate scholars¡¯ right to ¡°pursue work with unpredictable outcomes¡±.

¡°We are not being hypercritical of colleagues who are very creative, but warning about a direction of travel,¡± she added, observing that ¡°if we continue on this trajectory we will lose a lot of good people¡±.

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The tragic story of Dr Vendettas will continue on Twitter over the next 28 weeks, although there are plans to apply the zombie critique more widely, said Ms Jones-Devitt.

¡°We are considering the creation of a Zombie Excellence Framework ¨C with blood, sputum and gore awards, instead of bronze, silver and gold ¨C as we think zombie studies relates very well to higher education.¡±

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com