Becoming the Self-Aware Scholar

• In Event: Arts-Based Mentoring and Reflections

Abstract

This autoethnography focuses on the ways I exercise self-awareness as I develop a critical consciousness during my doctoral studies. Beliefs and experiences pertaining to race, gender, and socioeconomic status are explored to understand my own intersectionality and positionality. As a white, middle-class woman pursuing a doctorate at a research university in the northeastern United States, my critical understanding of my own positionality is necessary to conduct quality research. Completing my Ph.D. during the MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements offers a chance to turn theory to praxis. A sense of scholarly self-awareness was developed and traced through journaling and reflections on critical moments using arts-based methods. Critical moments were analyzed and presented through narrative and poetic reflective letter writing.

Author

• Kerry Cormier, Rowan University