Abstract
While a growing body of work focuses on research in the form of poetry, the author instead uses poetry to examine not only her research topic and academia but also her own motives for research. Based on an exploration of narrative in her historiographical study of the Georgia Writer’s Project Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies Among the Georgia Coastal Negroes, Kelly’s poetic interrogation begins with her personal connection to the Flying African tales, then moves into the ways her own life informs her self-identification as a researcher and scholar. Finally, she turns her gaze on the ultimate gazer—academia.
The presentation of this work in an academic journal seeks to trouble rather than soothe, agitate rather than comfort. It calls for an unwavering, unabashed accountability: if we academicians truly want to explore, truly want to find the answers to our questions, we must first examine ourselves.
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