ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an autoethnography of one female academic’s struggles for work/life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such autoethnographic accounts can shed a powerful light into our lives as academics and practitioners during turbulent moments in human history. This narrative depicts how the work/life balance struggles experienced by female academics have intensified during lockdown as professional, schooling, and parenting roles merge. Autoethnographies embody an expansive language that can convey the intense affective states emerging from the stresses of social isolation and relentless workload. This chapter explores how autoethnographies can help us to tap into the reflexivity that emerges from disruptions, as well as the musical words that can transcend the panic and pragmatism triggered by the pandemic.
