ABSTRACT
From the pain of outing an academic depression to honesty about imposter syndrome, to the feeling of failure associated with job instability, writers have started to share narratives with us. Reflecting back on past work brings with it the emotions, frustrations, pain, and reminders of the impact of the days already lived. Writing autoethnography is often akin to showing more skin in the academic community. Coming from a program socialized in the script of post positivist detachment and just learning more critical methods, this move felt much too far. Autoethnography has always had a unique place within communication research due to the radical honesty the research calls us to consider. The intimacy and vulnerability that this type of research requires challenges the typical academic performance. Kahl argues that autoethnography is a critical tool for having meaningful dialogues about issues of power.
