Between DJs, turntables, and (re)imagining ivory tower experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACT Like the DJ who mixes together snippets of songs, I use snippets of memories within this essay to create a layered account of my experience of being an insider/outsider within racialized academic spaces. Sharing these snippets lead me to a discussion about how the choices I deploy within my academic writing are an active attempt to make room and create a homeplace for myself within the ivory tower. Extending the hip-hop DJ metaphor, I discuss how DJs use turntables and records to sonically merge different worlds by bringing together disparate sounds, voices, and cultures. I argue that, like the DJ, my writing intentionally brings together two worlds/two cultures/two voices/two selves: my academic self and my hip-hop self. Through word choice (hip-hop vernacular), use of hip-hop aesthetics (hip-hop metaphors and examples), and who I cite (sampling), I remix canonical Eurocentric ways of producing knowledge, make room for my voice to be heard in racialized academic homeplaces, and (re)imagine my experiences within academia.