A professor's fortunate suggestion: An essay on the transformational power of interpretive epistemologies

Abstract

This is an essay about the transformative power of interpretive epistemologies for those who come into the social sciences seeking meaning in the messiness of human experience. It is about how an epistemological exercise gave the author symbolic tools to become sentient of his father's subjective oppressive force in his life - with the man living 5,000 miles away. A professor's simple suggestion unlocked unacknowledged yet ever-present epiphanies of identity formation that altered the author's relationship with his father and with social sciences. The author wrote this essay in an attempt to offer another instantiation of how self-reflective methodologies can guide the social sciences in unearthing unconscious aspects of experience. © 2007 Sage Publication.