The Domestic Academic

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceeding with ISSN or ISBNChapterpeer-review

Abstract

In this chapter I will story myself as a domestic academic – an educated, professional woman with career aspirations and goals who also pops bleach down the loo and a load of washing in the machine in-between marking and writing papers. It will be an autoethnographic portrait of myself that celebrates the blurred lines of my domestic and professional identities, performed through a series of poetical and fairy tale inspired narratives alongside self-portraits that are embroidered onto dusters, accompanied by academic critique.

By positioning my domestic and academic selves as the source of inspiration, my cross-disciplinary creative practice responds to my personal home-space, my professional work-space, and society’s expectations of myself as a woman. Discussion of the domestic, an experience we all share whatever our gender, deserves academic recognition as an ethnographic record of lives lived, ‘disrupting norms of research practice and representation’ (Holman-Jones et al, 2013) to challenge what is perceived as worthy and of merit.

Hall (2014) writes that ‘self-portraiture has become the defining genre of our confessional age,’ giving ‘privileged access to the sitters soul,’ to enable a level of engagement, empathy and relational understanding, which autoethnography also facilitates when we tell each other confessional stories within a social, political and economic context. These self-portraits and self-inspired narratives provide the perfect platform to visually entice and perform myself in a manner that goes beyond a simple likeness. They combine to become a catalyst for feminist academic discourse that opens up conversations and makes them accessible.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStorying the Self
PublisherIntellect
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2020

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