ABSTRACT
In our chapter, we perform the beginning of our relationship as mentor and mentee to explore the often-hidden roots of what we now call critical autoethnography. Through our conversation, we reclaim the decolonial, feminist, and performative origins of this research practice. We acknowledge the radical scholars, often women and/or people of color, who engaged in telling their life stories against power before they had words like critical autoethnography to label, and potentially police, the important work they were doing. By exploring this through the lens of our own relationship, we illustrate the power of narrative as an avenue for people to present their lives and experiences in the face of existing academic structures. Through our performance, we show that personal identity is a strong indicator of what research practices we learn, yet, it can be overcome by the ability to recognize voices of who have come from both before and places hidden from us.
