Exploring academic identities through collage-making: A collaborative autoethnographic project

Abstract

abstract Black/women of colour occupying academic positions is still a novel phenomenon in many academic institutions, in South Africa and elsewhere. We explored our academic identities as early-career black/women of colour through the novel application of collage-making as a tool in collaborative autoethnography (CAE). Through collaborative collage-making, we generated personal reflections on our experiences as academics. The content of the collages and the group reflections they generated were subjected to thematic analysis. Our results revealed socially cohesive and professionally inhibiting experiences that have shaped our academic identities. We shed light on issues related to academic mobility, the need to perform and the social interactions that help or hinder our academic identity-making processes as women of colour at a historically white institution. Sharing and reflecting on our collages also offered an unexpected benefit: we were able to reframe aspects of our thinking and beliefs about our academic identity and identify potential pathways for change. In this way, we established and participated in a professional caring community that facilitated sharing of tips of the trade – a practice that relates to Joan Tronto's idea of caring ‘with’. Our shared insights add to the existing body of knowledge on women's experiences in academia more broadly, as well as feminist decoloniality as an applied theory of caring. We argue that CAE is a powerful and empowering methodological approach that aligns with an ethic of care. We found that the agency emanating from the process positioned us to promote a more inclusive university environment where women of colour can thrive and experience a sense of belonging and accomplishment.