Positionality and the dialectic of race and gender in British higher education: The issue with (mis) representation

Abstract

Disappointed by countless academic resources and personal accounts that tend to situate women of colour as the racialised other, this article aims to critique Western representation of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women and query the production of knowledge in British Higher Education (BHE). Engaging in self-conscious introspective narrative where our personal experiences are linked to the social, we situate this paper in duoethnographic research by linking our personal experiences to the broader social context of “Whiteness” found within British Higher Education. Using our lived experiences as an entry point, we analyse personal challenges of negotiating “Whiteness” within British Higher Education. Drawing from the notion of gender and cultural essentialism, we discuss how Western discourse typically presents Arab and other women of colour as culturally oppressed and lacking a sense of agency. We call attention to the need to embrace decolonial feminism (Lugones, 2010), where the coloniality of gender is addressed and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) is appreciated as an analytical tool for the experiences of women.