Writing Ourselves into Academia: An Autoethnography of Female Academics Reimagining Scholarly Progress through Writing Retreats

• In Event: Women Sustaining Each Other

Abstract

This collaborative autoethnography traces the stories and scholarly work of four female academics who gathered for writing retreats over two summers. Situated within the AERA theme of Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures, we examine our collective efforts to reclaim time, space, and community as feminist acts of resistance and reimagination using critical autoethnographic methods (Boylorn & Orbe, 2020; Ellis et al.). Findings reveal insights into how female academics navigate inequities in writing support, scholarly expectations, emotional labor, and cultural ways of knowing. Ultimately, we propose that feminist writing retreats offer a counterspace for imagining a future academy where care, collaboration, and writing justice are central to academic life.

Authors

• Stephanie M Branson, Northern Arizona University

• Marti Canipe, Northern Arizona University

• Heather Lindfors-Navarro, Northern Arizona University

• Victoria Damjanovic, Northern Arizona University