1st Edition

Doctoral Students’ Identities and Emotional Wellbeing in Applied Linguistics Autoethnographic Accounts

    266 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This edited volume comprises an insightful collection of international autoethnographies from doctoral candidates in the field of applied linguistics, narrating and analyzing their student experiences to problematize and challenge the dominant and oppressive cultures of academia.

    Through 12 select contributions, the book examines the intersection of identity work and emotional labor in the doctoral student journey, sharing insights into the potential of autoethnography for self-reflection, community building, and healing in doctoral studies. Contributors examine their doctoral journeys through personal narratives and testimonials to understand their own experiences, agency, identity, and emotions, encouraging current or former doctoral students to engage in the critical reflection of their own experiences. Chapters are divided into four themes: interrelating multiple identities, navigating and negotiating in-betweenness, engaging emotions and wellbeing, and establishing support systems.

    Offering unique perspectives from a global spread of Ph.D. candidates, this book will be highly relevant reading for researchers and prospective or current doctoral students of applied linguistics, language education, TESOL, and LOTE. It will also be of interest to those interested in higher education, dissertation research, and autoethnography as a method.

    1. Doctoral students’ identities and emotional well-being in applied linguistics: Introducing the collection of autoethnographies Bedrettin Yazan, Ethan Trinh, and Luis Javier Pentón Herrera  Part I: INTERRELATING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES 2. Navigating the academy with imposter syndrome as a first-generation queer student: Lessons learned James Coda  3. Playing the academic game: Identities, socialization, and discourse community Xiao Tan  4. Negotiating my scholar identity: Jumping through hoops and hurdles Juyeon Yoo  Part II: NAVIGATING AND NEGOTIATING IN-BETWEENNESS 5. Exploring my in-betweenness as a growing transnational scholar through poetic autoethnography Ufuk Keleş  6. The becoming of transcultural pracademics Soyoung Sarah Han, Seongryeong Yu, and Yun-Chen Yen  7. A poetic narrative autoethnography on transnational identity: Tumbleweed Oksana Moroz  Part III: ENGAGING EMOTIONS AND WELL-BEING 8. An Autoethnographic Account of Faculty-on-Student Abuse: Walking on Eggshells Farah Ali  9. Rethinking the role of emotional dissonance in catalyzing professional identity development Eunhae Cho  10. Navigating the first year of doctoral study: Developing a researcher identity and other lessons learned outside of the program handbook Carlo Cinaglia  Part IV: ESTABLISHING SUPPORT SYSTEMS  11. Writing for publication as doctoral students: Challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned Jia Gui, Shu-Wen Lan, and Luciana C. de Oliveira  12. Re-envisioning academic competition: Sharing leadership in co-authorship, co-publication, and building collective wisdom Iuliia Fakhrutdinova, Nasiba Norova, and Vannessa Quintana Sarria  13. The benefits of community in the face of disaster: Struggling to success Lucian Rothe  Part V: MOVING FORWARD 14. Poetic conversations: Moving forward with autoethnography in applied linguistics Ethan Trinh, Bedrettin Yazan, and Luis Javier Pentón Herrera  15. Afterword Bedrettin Yazan

    Biography

    Bedrettin Yazan is Associate Professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.

    Ethan Trinh is a Vietnamese queer immigrant, Critical Researcher, and Teacher Educator at Georgia State University, USA.

    Luis Javier Pentón Herrera is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Warsaw, Poland, and Coordinator of the Graduate TESOL Certificate, George Washington University, USA.

    Self-stories, when told with vulnerability and authenticity, have the power to move all kinds of readers across time and space, but locating those self-stories in the in-between spaces created along transnational and translingual personal-professional trajectories, especially within traditional academia, requires a different brand of courage. The editors and the contributors of this volume demonstrate that courage over and over again, as they take their readers on a collective multivocal journey through a diverse autoethnographic landscape, where they boldly and poignantly disrupt traditional academia's business-as-usual approach through their vulnerable and authentic writings. A must-read and a much-needed one.

    - Rashi Jain, Montgomery College, United States

    Grounded in the lived identities and experiences of three equity scholars, this edited collection showcasing (poetic) autoethnography is both timely and critical addition to doctoral education studies and qualitative research methods. By zooming in on the experiences of doctoral students and their (dis)(inter)connected academic and discoursal communities, the collection normalizes the humanizing of doctoral education by sharing their voices and experiences of victories and challenges. Finally, bringing together the identities in relation to agency, emotional well-beings, and investment is an important movement toward creating a space for the next generation of equity practitioners during global crises.

    - Gloria Park, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, United States

    A delightful collection of studies on autoethnography in graduate programs, which paints the life of PhD students articulately. The chapters speak to PhD students so directly and sincerely that resonate with most, if not all, of them worldwide. This is a must-read volume for many PhD students and graduates who can introspectively and retrospectively engage with the content to (re)define their identities, and track the emotions that underlie those identities.

    - Mostafa Nazari, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

    This phenomenal work by a cadre of brilliant doctoral students provides fascinating autoethnographical accounts on the identity negotiation and construction. Reading each chapter, I was taken on a riveting, yet emotive journey through reflecting on my own experiences as a Black, first generation, international, doctoral student within the field of language learning. I highly endorse this work; I contend that it is groundbreaking, serving as the impetus for institutions of higher education to work towards discouraging harmful practices, thus, creating critically conscious and humanizing spaces particularly for students from historically underrepresented groups within higher education.

    - Valentino Rahming, Carnegie Mellon University, United States

    Bedrettin Yazan, Ethan Trinh, and Luis Javier Pentón Herrera have put together important autoethnographies that shed light on the identities and emotional wellbeing of doctoral students in our field. The editors combine their expertise on autoethnography, the contributing authors’ rich accounts of lived experiences, and their collective wisdom and vision for better academic and personal wellbeing. This collection is a significant resource for anyone concerned with the current and future health of our scholarly community.

    - Anwar Ahmed, University of British Columbia, Canada