This essay chronicles a tale of personal and academic transformation triggered by the rich mentoring spirit of Bud Goodall. Bud encouraged me discover how a research project on male executives and work-life balance was intricately intertwined with my familial and personal experiences. The essay describes a “Second Spring”—a period of reawakening after the full cycle of ethnographic seasons in which researchers identify blind spots in their scholarship and ways of being. In this Second Spring, I find myself transforming my commitments to gender equity from a place of evidence collection and self-righteous upset to a place of dialogic conversation and choice.
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