& so the grimness of the REF process is exacerbated for creative writers, who find themselves having not only having to go along with the moronic & troubling use of language the REF imposes, but also having to explain themselves to the 'discipline' of their academic colleagues

this is the least of the REF's problems (there are so many to choose from!), but it's not unrelated to how the REF creates painful and divisive atmospheres, and exacerbates existing hierarchies of power and status

anyway, I like my job, and I hover between creative and critical and can be an academic with one hat on and a writer with another, but the REF fucks us all up, vote Labour, let's halt the marketisation of universities!

small mercies: I wasn't in a permanent post when Unmastered came out, can you imagine trying to make that book amenable to a REF narrative, I absolutely would have had a nervous breakdown