In this article, we explore the concept of teacher professionalism in the higher education context of neoliberal performativity driven educational policy. We do so by analysing the extended narrative of Ursula, an academic working at a large, research-intensive university in Australia. Through this analysis, we see the debilitating effects of neoliberalism on the professional actions and identity of one educator. But we also see how resistance can function as the manifestation of commitment within a conceptualization of enacted teacher professionalism, and how caring action as an activist stance of principled resistance can support educators to align institutionally defined professionalism with their own professional self-understanding.