Love, Theoretically

Hazelwood often examines the politics of academia in her novels, particularly as it pertains to women working in the fields of STEM. The main character of Love, Theoretically begins as a chronically overworked and underappreciated adjunct professor, a job which requires her to “teach nine courses and commute between three different universities, translated into some five hundred students sending me pics of the weird rash on their crotch to get their absence excused. That I make so little money, it’s almost no money. That I have no long-term contract or benefits” (37). The protagonist’s description of her job is not dissimilar from contemporary accounts of adjunct teaching, as in 2021, just two years before the publication of the novel, 68% of university faculty were adjuncts who receive none of the benefits or security of tenure and tenure-track professors (Colby, Glenn. “Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Higher Education.” American Association of University Professors, vol. 109, no.1, 2023). In contrast, the position to which Elsie applies at the beginning of the novel is a tenure-track position, meaning it has the possibility to turn into a tenured position in which she would have much better pay, health care, time to research rather than strictly teaching, and more. Ultimately, the position Elsie takes is not a professorship but a postdoctoral research fellowship. This is a common job held by those who have obtained a PhD before they continue to a professorship or other work in their industry. As a postdoc researcher, Elsie is hired to do specific research for another researcher or professor who has obtained grants to hire a research fellow.

The general structure of professorships is a problem in and of itself that Hazelwood addresses in Love, Theoretically, but she also touches on politicized issues in academia that affect more specific populations. All her novels address the misogyny ingrained in the STEM fields in particular and how women must work harder than men to prove themselves in a traditionally masculine field. In Love, Theoretically, for example, Elsie’s work is frequently accused of being written by her male mentor, who attempts to isolate her from other academics. Additionally, the discipline infighting that occurs within the novel is also not an uncommon side effect of academic politics. A hoax article referenced within the novel is loosely based on a real article used by a physics professor to “make a point about [a journal’s] editorial sloppiness and lack of intellectual rigor” (344) as noted by Hazelwood in her author’s note to the novel. As a whole, Hazelwood depicts the politics of academia in her novels as frivolous and harmful and uses empirical evidence as well as personal experience to support her claims.