‘To You, Who May Find Yourself in This Story’: What a Baker’s Memoir Taught an Emerging Education Scholar

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the ways in which pleasure-reading a Jackie Kai Ellis’ memoir, The Measure of my Powers: A Memoir of Food, Misery, and Paris turned into an intense exercise of critical reflection on personal growth and grief in pursuing academia. This story resonated deeply with me, especially due to how Ellis’ endeavouring to excel, find space, and secure a place in her work as an entrepeneur baker connects to the sometimes painful and often precarious path that so many scholars take to author themselves in the neoliberal university.