
A Novel
[Audiobook Forthcoming]
What happens when campus security becomes a surveillance state aligned with alt-right extremists? 'Not-So-Academic Affairs' answers with a razor-edged satire set in pre-pandemic America, where the battle for academic freedom in Lundston, Ohio becomes a darkly comic resistance tale against encroaching authoritarianism. The story follows beleaguered itinerant professor Saeed Stone and intrepid graduate assistant Alyssa Waite as they navigate the complexities of forbidden desire, the inanities of department culture, and the farcical yet foreboding infringements on privacy.
When Campus Security, a corporate entity contracted by the state, begins implementing draconian surveillance measures, Saeed and Alyssa are drawn into an alliance of colorful colleagues, students, and townspeople to counter the growing threat. Together they resist not only the university's overreach but also a militia organized by Rex Tiller, an agitator and provocateur who returns to college after an industrial accident, aligns with officers in Campus Security, and delights in sabotaging professors.
As their resistance movement grows into a massive protest against eugenicist Dick Walker’s speech on campus, complications mount as well—intimidation tactics, shocking betrayals, mysterious omens, and unintended consequences that spiral out of control. The novel tells a timely tale of love and solidarity, exploring how even those defending intellectual liberty and communal dignity find themselves powerless when events take on a life of their own.