Am I Still a Revolutionary in a Suit? A Duoethnography of Radicals Becoming Department Chairs

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Biographical and Documentary SIG Poster Session

Abstract

The purpose of this study is for the researchers to “juxtapose [our] life histories in order to provide multiple understandings of a social phenomenon” (Hughes & Pennington, 2017, p. 19). Longtime friends, each of us has moved this year from roles as resistance-oriented education faculty members into new positions as department chairs in new institutions. We believe that our relationship can help us help each other grasp and wield the transformative possibilities in working in administration. We employ autoethnographic methods (Hughes, Pennington, & Makris, 2012) informed by self-study and action research methodology (Tillapaugh & Haber-Curran, 2013). We believe that an important contribution of this study is a deepened form of the vulnerability discussed previously in the self-study literature (Knowles, 2014).

Authors

• Isabel Nunez, Indiana University - Purdue University at Fort Wayne

• Julie Gorlewski, Virginia Commonwealth University