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Autoethnographic Evocations of U.S. Doctoral Students in the Fields of Social Sciences and Humanities
This edited volume comprises a compilation of autoethnographic evocations from U.S. doctoral students in the fields of social sciences and humanities, who narrate and analyze their experiences in the doctoral journey and beyond. Through 11 select contributions, the book examines the intersections and shifting roles of the personal and the community in the doctoral student journey, illustrating the complex and unique nature of pursuing a doctoral degree. Part 1, Curating the Self, includes five autoethnographic accounts that speak directly to the personal challenges and transformations experienced in the doctoral journey. Part 2, Embracing the Community, includes six autoethnographic accounts illustrating supportive communities’ life-changing power during the doctoral journey.

Contributors are: Gabriel T. Acevedo Velázquez, Ahmad A. Alharthi, Afiya Armstrong, Nick Bardo, Caitlin Beare, Rebecca Borowski, Anya Ezhevskaya, Christopher Fornaro, Melinda Harrison, Linda Helmick, Joanelle Morales, Olya Perevalova, Alexis Saba, Kimberly Sterin, Katrina Struloeff, Rebecca L. Thacker, Lisa D. Wood, Erin H. York, Christel Young and Nara Yun.
This book draws together anthropological studies of human-animal relations among Indigenous Peoples in three regions of the Americas: the Andes, Amazonia and the American Arctic. Despite contrasts between the ecologies of the different regions, it finds useful comparisons between the ways that lives of human and non-human animals are entwined in shared circumstances and sentient entanglements. While studies of all three regions have been influential in scholarship on human-animal relations, the regions are seldom brought together. This volume highlights the value of examining partial connections across the American continent between human and other-than-human lives.

Abstract

Discussions of first-generation students (FGS s) in academic spaces can easily fall into talks of deficits. Indeed, FGS s may lack the benefit of a parent or guardian who can act as a knowledgeable guide to and through post-secondary contexts. However, FGS s may also draw upon unique personal assets and characteristics to succeed academically. One crucial element for success that I have identified in my own first-generation academic journey is the importance of a growth mindset amidst a lack of capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977), namely, the (academic) cultural knowledge possessed by continuing-generation students. In this autoethnography, I chronologically explore my post-secondary journey as a first-generation doctoral student, identifying points in time in which I lacked capital but employed the asset of a growth mindset to fill in the gap. The data reveal how a growth mindset developed during the undergraduate and early-graduate years due to my first-generation status, and how this new outlook resulted in a meandering yet fulfilling doctoral journey.

In: Curating the Self and Embracing the Community