‘That women’s writing thing you do’ Reflections on Early-Career Decision Making

Jennifer Fraser

doi:10.3828/mlo.v0i1.7

Abstract

This article takes its title from an experience in a liminal moment after completing a PhD but not yet finding a comfortable academic home to offer reflections based on what to contemplate when making decisions after the PhD. It considers how to find spaces to work in which there is the possibility for congruency between what we do, what we believe in and the realities of needing to earn a living. These reflections and experiences are read through the theoretical lens of work on gendered silences and the relationships of our gendered selves to knowledge and research. The article interweaves narratives of early-career decisions, gendered and feminist experiences of cultural studies with the relationships between me and my research project.

Highlights

A fortuitous encounter with a nineteenth-century text left on my desk by a thoughtful librarian led to years of contemplating the relationships between our different selves and our research
Margarita Práxedes Muñoz (18622–1909) was a nineteenth-century Peruvian scientist, medical doctor and novelist who went into academic exile in Chile and political exile in Argentina
Without the generosity of the librarian in the Biblioteca Nacional in Lima, I would not have heard of Práxedes Muñoz as she was not referred to in any of the documents or catalogues I consulted, nor was there any critical work on her that was readily available

Summary

Introduction

A fortuitous encounter with a nineteenth-century text left on my desk by a thoughtful librarian led to years of contemplating the relationships between our different selves and our research. Reflections on silence, writing and academic spaces writing she articulates new ways of being in the social body that reject limitations based on perceptions of gender. It alters the experience of being in time, Reflections on silence, writing and academic spaces the way we separate the past, the present, and the future.

Results

Conclusion