Liminal Zones of Knowing, Learning, and Being

Abstract

This creative nonfiction essay explores the liminality and power dynamics in the spaces that I, as an immigrant woman of color and an upper-caste, upper-class Indian, occupy. I offer poetic interludes to acknowledge the impact of transnational movement on ideas of the self. The multimodal creative essay follows a “reverse” way of making knowledge—it begins with knowing, then moves into learning, and finally into being. In the process of crafting this paper, I work backward to unlearn and relearn who I am. Drawing inspiration from postcolonial, feminist, and critical race theories, I question the permanence of knowing oneself.