ABSTRACT
Throughout Mexico, multinational factories known as maquilas employ assembly-line workers to manufacture brand-name clothing. During her six years as a PhD student in the United States, Marlene noted similarities between a maquila and the assembly-line process of doctoral education: low wages, high expectations, and constant encouragement to hit ‘industry standards’, with no promise of ongoing employment in the future. This chapter explores, through conversation, how Marlene and her academic advisor sought to subvert the dominant system of knowledge production by incorporating wisdom she learned by doing field research with Maya women working at a maquila in the Yucatan.
