Love letters, sick notes and running on empty: Reflections on well-being in Higher Education

This paper is both 'a love letter and asick note' and is a response and contribution to the ‘Wellbeing & Research’ Day held on Saturday 18th May 2024.This was the first and inaugural Open Doctoral School at UAL. This paper takes the form of a letter, which details the conversations between the authors in the lead up to the event.

Focussed on well-ness, this paper reflects critical considerations regarding the tensions of the neoliberal university and the nature of well-ness and community in higher education. These are heightened, following the pandemic and ongoing times of crisis and here the authors reflect on the words of Mays Imad: We are experiencing global agony and there is heartbreak in higher education (2022). We feel it viscerally and at a soul level and ask, where is the love in what we do and who we are?