Academic Writing from the Depths: An Autoethnographic and Organisational Account

Abstract

In “Birds, Women and Writing”, Cixous (Birds, women and writing (Trans: Cornell S, Sellers S). In: Calarco M, Atterton P (eds) Animal philosophy: essential readings in continental thought. Continuum, London, pp 167–173, 2004) refers to opening “the back door of thought” (p. 169), a place where the unthought, the risky and the impossible can be imagined. She suggests that writing comes from “deep inside” this space: “Somewhere in my stomach, my womb” (p. 172). What becomes possible when academic writing acknowledges the depths? From a critical feminist perspective, this chapter explores the troublesome subjectivities, temporalities and spatialities of being an academic writer in the imaginary space of the academy. First: I write from (and for) myself. Second: I write from (and for) a university.