ABSTRACT
On 15 May 1995 I graduated with a doctorate in Education from the University of California, Berkeley. I began writing this paper the year that I completed a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) post doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. In some academic circles the usual inferences gleaned from this short biography are that I had `arrived' and that my scholarship was just starting to develop. I take issue with these inferences. If statements of my `arriving' are based on the assumptions that I have now attained a certain academic pedigree and, consequently, I've moved on up in socio-economic class affiliation, I beg to differ. It is true that my life had changed as a result of successfully completing graduate school and the promise of an improvement in my financial circumstances loomed on the horizons. It is also true that my work was receiving a modicum of recognition in several academic arenas. However, my `success' remained couched in ambiguity. At the time of graduation my obvious successes were offers of a tenured track faculty position as well as three post-doctoral fellowships; my first ever published article appeared in the June 1995 issue of the Harvard Educational Review, and one publisher had already expressed interest in my dissertation. However, coupled with these successes was my knowledge that, except for the HER article, all of my `success' resulted from my `AERA hustle'.
