An Oscillating Wave: How to recarve a space for an academic practice through Life’s Little Vagaries
Whilst out of London for the weekend staying with family in the English countryside, a neighbour texted to tell me that the house three doors down from my own home in Camberwell had sold, after being on the market for over a year.
This might not seem like bad news.
But the sucker punch? The new neighbours are Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds.
That Monday evening, paparazzi began to appear outside my home, camping out on the street overnight. It was the night before Johnson was declared the new leader of the Conservative Party, the night before he become the new Prime Minister of the United (or not-so-United) Kingdom.
Three years ago, my children and I were rendered homeless when our home became too dangerous for us to stay. We eventually returned to the family home when I made the decision to risk the dangers: I had done enough research to know what the risks were; and I had read enough about the structural social, economic and political issues we were situated within to know how this would play out.
As I have dealt with the aftermath of these events, I have continually re-framed my narrative, placing different contextual lenses on my own experiences. I am an oscillating wave.
This autoethnographic paper presents and examines various methods I deployed for how to carve a space for an academic life through these oscillations; and how these oscillations can be given shape through academic pursuits.