“Writing the Other as Other”: Exploring the Othered Lens in Academia Using Collaborative Autoethnography

Abstract

Trends seemingly signal the decay of White heterosexual male hegemony in academe. Still, while changes have addressed lack of access to an academic system whose benefits are assumed, critical literatures call into question Western-based theory and traditionally Eurocentric ways of knowledge production. An important programmatic component of decolonizing knowledge production consists of arguing for increased inclusivity and diversity among scholars. The present study is inscribed in these decolonial tendencies and focuses on the experience of otherness inside academia. Using collaborative autoethnography, we set side-by-side the academic and professional experiences and epistemological reflections of two criminal justice and criminology scholars: an Arab European scholar of politico-ideological violence and a Black American scholar of identity and the psychology of justice. We explore otherness as a ‘social fact’ and identify three dimensions, namely (1) otherness as a lens to read coloniality, (2) feeling and coping with otherness, and (3) otherness as connection. We suggest that promoting the “othered lens” in academia, especially criminology, may not only be healthy and necessary for a diversification of views and perspectives, but also epistemologically and methodologically vital for how criminology engages with the socially deviant or harmed Other it is, by its very essence, preoccupied with.

Exploring a Social Identity Theory of Shared Narrative: Insights from Resident Stories of Police Contact in Newark, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio

“…Life narrative is central to how we perceive our world (McAdams & McLean, 2013). My own identity is based on a personal story of scholarly pursuits and imagined accomplishments that cannot be fully understood disconnected from the larger histories of the social groups which help define me (Ajil & Blount-Hill, 2020;Blount-Hill & St. John, 2017a, 2017b. 1 Humans link together independent events to form cohesive narratives and to find collective meaning.…”

In Their Experience: A Review of Racial and Sexual Minority Experience in Academe and Proposals for Building an Inclusive Criminology

“…These sentiments are shared largely across disciplines, including criminology and criminal justice (CCJ). In our own writings on the CCJ academy, we have acknowledged positive trends in racial diversification among faculty (Ajil & Blount-Hill, 2020;Blount-Hill & St. John, 2017), and others have noted a transition from reflexive marginalization to greater inclusion (Greene et al, 2018). Meanwhile, gender barriers have been breached; in addition to CCJ's large numbers of women faculty, Rice et al (2007) highlight several who are now "star" scholars.…”

“…The persistence of a hegemonic order in which Global Northern/Western knowledge is positioned as superior is a central preoccupation of decolonial scholars. Amidst an increasing number of authors applying a decolonial perspective to CCJ theory and praxis (Blagg & Anthony, 2019; Cunneen & Tauri, 2016; Moosavi, 2019; Tauri & Deckert, 2019) exists several calling for decolonizing the university (de Jong et all., 2017; Ajil & Blount-Hill, 2020).…”

“…5 Of those 14, nine are published in Race and Justice, two in Critical Criminology, one in Decolonization of Criminology and Justice, and two published outside of CCJ, one each in The Qualitative Report and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. Works authored by us are the only CCJ manuscripts whose authors were students at the time of publication, or that include either an Arab author, an author with a non-academic affiliation, an author from an institution outside the United States, or an author identifying as gay (Blount-Hill & St. John, 2017;Ajil & Blount-Hill, 2020). Only one CCJ manuscript includes authors identifying as transgender (Walker et al, 2021) or features authors of multiple genders (Tietjen et al, 2021); eight were authored exclusively by men, four exclusively by women.…”

Becoming Open Knowledge Institutions: Divergence, Dialogue and Diversity

“…A diversified staff that reflects the diversity of institutional student bodies and communities contributes to openness and the inclusion of diverse ideas, knowledges and languages. Systemic biases within academic research practices and institutions, including colonisation, genderism, sexism and racism perpetuate and legitimize marginalisation of groups of people and thought [12][13][14][15]. Diversity in open knowledge is enacted through the transmission of knowledge to students in teaching and the creation of diverse models and examples.…”