Brown Body of Knowledge: A Tale of Erasure

In this autoethnographic piece, I offer five short poems reading as a “tale of erasure” in the academy. The poems document how my particular identities—Brown, immigrant, female, professor—came to bear during the negotiation of immigration status. This tale illuminates the particular intersection of these layered identities with institutional silencing processes. Beyond my immediate story, poetic prose helps to document experiences of silencing and annihilation, which are particularly difficult to put into words. In addition, the narratives offer insight into the specific complexities faced by foreign faculty in the U.S. academy.