Sharon Crowley posits that because time is a topos, and thus operates within a realm were we assume a shared definition it hides difference, because if it is never stated out loud that there are different conceptualizations of time it is easy to fall into a discursive understanding that assumes a hegemonic definition of time. 

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Price defines time as a topos. Topos is a term used to describe concepts that are shared my many people, often mentioned, but rarely given a set definition.

Time as Topos

Crowley, Sharon. 2006. Towards a Civil Discourse: Rhetoric and Fundamentalism. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Towards a Civil Discourse: Rhetoric and Fundamentalism

Price gives the examples of other topi - freedom and healthy, that only really get defined in comparison to not being free and being in ill health. 

Examples of Topi

Topos as Hiding Difference

Price points out that since time is a topos these expectations to move faster, as shown in Linh's example,  can be enforced by other people, but Price notes they don't have to be. There is an ambient  push for speed in academia, so people can feel pressured to move faster even if there is no direct place that pressure is seemingly coming from.

Time as Topos and  Expectations

Margaret Price's Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life employs a disability studies framework to critique how U.S. higher education systematically marginalizes individuals with mental disabilities. Price argues that academic discourse relies on "topi," or commonplaces, such as rationality, criticality, participation, and collegiality, which inherently disadvantage neuroatypical students and faculty. Through analyses of medical discourse, narratives of school shootings, independent scholarship, and counter-diagnostic autobiographies, Price advocates for a transformation of academic infrastructure using principles of universal design to create a more inclusive, "multimodal" environment that values diverse ways of thinking and being.

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