This article derives from the physical markers of “non-belonging” associated with my female and ethnic body, which are strong markers of deficit power levels in mainstream academic discourses. It discusses the sense of dis “ease” experienced by academics who feel coerced to adopt positivist and scientific rationalist approaches to knowledge at the expense of personal voice. It explores through an autoethnography of a mother’s gaze, how embodied modes of writing and inquiry can enable greater comfort in one’s own skin.
AtayA. (2018). Journey of errors: Finding home in academia. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 18, 16-22.
2.
BhattacharyaK. (2016). The vulnerable academic: Personal narratives and strategic de/colonizing of academic structures. Qualitative Inquiry, 22, 309-321.
CallahanS. B. D. (2008). Academic outings. Symbolic Interaction, 31, 351-375.
5.
DeleuzeG. (1988). Spinoza: Practical philosophy (HurleyR., Trans.). San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
6.
EllingsonL. L. (2006). Embodied knowledge: Writing researchers’ bodies into qualitative health research. Qualitative Health Research, 16, 298-310.
7.
FarnellB.VarelaC. R. (2008). The second somatic revolution. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 38, 215-240.
8.
FreedmanD. P.HolmesM. S. (Eds.). (2012). The teacher’s body: Embodiment, authority, and identity in the academy. New York: State University of New York Press.
9.
GreeneM. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. New York, NY: John Wiley.
10.
GroszE. (2005). The nick of time: Politics, evolution, and the untimely. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
11.
Merleu-PontyM. (1967). The structure of behaviour. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
12.
PeliasJ. R. (2016). Writing autoethnography: The personal, poetic, and performative as compositional strategies. In JonesS. H.AdamsT.E.EllisC. (Eds.), Handbook of autoethnography (pp. 384-405). New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
SharmaS.Reimer-KirkhamS.CochraneM. (2009). Practicing the awareness of embodiment in qualitative health research: Methodological reflections. Qualitative Health Research, 19, 1642-1650.
14.
SharpJ. (2009). Geographies of postcolonialism. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
15.
TangenbergK.KempS. (2002). Embodied practice: Claiming the body’s experience, agency and knowledge for social work. Social Work, 47, 9-18.
