Excavations

Abstract

The future of autoethnography lies in intersectional reflexivity and critical perspective taking, which the authors demonstrate in their pleated narrative. In a collaborative autoethnography, the authors use journals, recollected conversations, letters, memory work, and sociological introspection to reconstruct their romantic and intellectual relationship from thirty years ago when they were undergraduate students attending different colleges. The narrative, poetry, and scenes the authors share show similar goals (independence, academic focus), emotional resonance (hot and cold, friendship as opposed to romance and sex), and testing out of personas. They offer explanations for the end of their romantic relationship including the lack of models for independent people in love that combine romance, love, intellect, and supporting each partner’s work goals and argue that excavation of the past, and their relationship, is an example of how we return to memories to reconstruct the specific details we need to understand a present moment.