Meandering academics

In this chapter, six “meandering academics” share their journey through academe, presenting individual narratives that coalesce into a collage of collective meandering. Sharing consonant and dissonant themes, they arrive at a common understanding of their careers as purposeful, typically non-traditional, and often activist in rejecting conventional norms that would otherwise strangle their creativity. Their meanderings reject a corporatized academic model and both assert and cultivate attitudes and behaviors that permit restoration and scholarly reflection. In doing so, they seek to offer a channel for those embarking on an academic career to be bold in choosing their own path, and to be open to meandering digressions that might enlighten and refresh.