ABSTRACT
This essay examines the relationship between objectivity and storytelling in the discipline of IR, and the different types of exposition that are possible. It shows that storytelling, unlike objectivity, serves to illuminate fracture and uncertainty rather than consolidating a universal form of truth. Questions of transparency, identity, authenticity, hierarchy, sovereignty, normalcy, and ‘tellability’ are central to the development of scholarly writing. This essay examines the status of scholarly life through narrative form, showing how our investments shape our research lives in the academy.
