What is it about?
In this chapter, I share a personalized account of different experiences that have shaped my doctoral journey as a South Asian woman. Intertwining poetic and artful musings, I (re)visit select moments in my past as a learner, educator, and researcher living in Canada. I do this as a means of exploring the multifarious ways in which I have been storied by myself and others in worlds of school, academia, and culture. Drawing upon epistemic and ontological considerations, I agitate the Western trope of a simple, linear path to education and contemplate a more nuanced and complex understanding of what it means to be a racialized person undertaking formal education. Blurring the lines between personal and scholarly discussion, I advocate for diverse meaning making and representation. In this manner, challenges, tensions, and inspirations are brought forward and illuminated.
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Why is it important?
Woven through with poetic and artful musings, this autobiographical writing represents the stories of one South Asian woman’s crooked doctoral journey. The chapter draws attention to the need for diverse representation in the field of education. Eschewing a monolithic understanding of who can undertake doctoral work, and diverging from a restricted view of what it means to pursue higher education, this narrative work amplifies the necessity of attending to a heteroglossia of voices. Embracing personal knowledge and unique meaning making, invites for the emergence of deeper insights and humane considerations to be shared.
Perspectives
It is an honour to write for First Gen Docs and Brill’s The Doctoral Journey in Education Series. I am grateful to Brent Bradford and Crystena A. H. Parker-Shandal for their invitation to take part in this important venture. I am thankful for the other authors in this collection whose works evocate the urgent need for a multiplicity of voices to be heard. I hope that my stories will inspire others who might be too afraid to cross boundaries, to step forward and try, despite the challenges they will face. Om shanti, shanti…
Jinny Menon
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Crooked Path, January 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004690479_002.
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