Autographics as autoethnography: comic book adventures of a migrant academic

Abstract

In this paper, I utilize autographics as an autoethnographic methodology to illustrate the subjective experience of being a precariously employed migrant academic in Australia. The autographic narrative, as well as the traditional text, are in dialogue with Sara Ahmed’s work on migration and estrangement, in order to explore migration both as a physical movement between countries, but also as a metaphorical movement between different forms of writing–scholarly texts and comics–and the communities associated with them–Academia and the Zine scene. Ahmed explores critical theory’s celebration of migration as a metaphor for transgression, a symbolic act of abandoning the familiar, the traditional and safe patterns of thinking to embark on adventures across borders and boundaries. My own presumptions regarding a literal migration in physical space were conflated with this metaphorical meaning, as I saw it as a liberatory move to reflect on–and re-invent–myself, breaking away from a national identity which I found stifling. My actual experience of migration turned out to be one of dislocation and isolation. In order to escape feelings of anxiety, I sought refuge in another metaphor: academia, and later the zine scene as an alternative ‘homeland.’.