Finding the Words: Using Critical Theory to Speak Back to Our Institutions

Abstract

Working as a Pacific critical university scholar in Aotearoa New Zealand necessitates the use of critical theory. Often our first encounter with critical theory involves furious nodding and highlighting as we find texts that speak to our own experiences of the world. We find ourselves revisiting these words as we would old friends, calling upon their support as we navigate the reality that is working within our neoliberal, white, masculine institutions. This paper explores how we can use these words to push, challenge and reject our institutional habits whilst simultaneously finding an odd comfort in how others have articulated their exclusion. This article will story the authors’ encounters with critical theory and reflect on the ways in which it has provided the words needed to speak back to our academic institutions. Importantly, this storying is not without limitations. Critical theory developed elsewhere cannot always provide the words we need, and it becomes necessary to weave our own understandings and find our own words to story our experiences.