Between DJs, turntables, and (re)imagining ivory tower experiences

Abstract

Like the DJ who mixes together snippets of songs, I use snippets of memories within this essay to create a layered account of my experience of being an insider/outsider within racialized academic spaces. Sharing these snippets lead me to a discussion about how the choices I deploy within my academic writing are an active attempt to make room and create a homeplace for myself within the ivory tower. Extending the hip-hop DJ metaphor, I discuss how DJs use turntables and records to sonically merge different worlds by bringing together disparate sounds, voices, and cultures. I argue that, like the DJ, my writing intentionally brings together two worlds/two cultures/ two voices/two selves: my academic self and my hip-hop self. Through word choice (hip-hop vernacular), use of hip-hop aesthetics (hip-hop metaphors and examples), and who I cite (sampling), I remix canonical Eurocentric ways of producing knowledge, make room for my voice to be heard in racialized academic homeplaces, and (re)imagine my experiences within academia.

Things I’ve Wanted to Share for a While: 10 Reflections on Navigating Multiple Pandemics as a Black Academic

“…Connecting my personal lived experiences to a larger cultural conversation, Things I ’ ve Wanted to Share for a While situates itself within a body of literature that chronicles and critically examines the unique challenges Black academics experience while navigating academic spaces. These challenges include feeling the need to always remain composed, pleasant, and suppress their emotions in professional settings (Durham, 2021); understanding, because of the marginalized intersections of their identity, they will need to exceed, rather than meet expectations and push themselves to work harder than their colleagues to obtain success (Hendrix, 2021); and gracefully maneuvering the moments when they are reminded of their “otherness” status (McFerguson, 2020). Aligning with the work of the aforementioned scholars, Things I ’ ve Wanted to Share for a While explores the unique ways Black scholars navigate performing emotional and professional norms in racialized academic settings.…”