Blog Post #6: Dana

For the past __ years I've been told that I'm a student, and I think I adhere to that role pretty well. Merriam Webster defines student as, "scholar; learner: especially one who attends a school," and I'm definitely that. (Please take note that you are especially a student if you attend a school, because nothing gets you a label quite like thousands of dollars to academe!) Regardless, and given the generous wording of this question, I've also been assigned other aspects of my identity: teacher, collaborator, and independent researcher, none of which I feel entirely comfortable owning to.

I believe that when we talk about self-labeling, or the attempt to self-label, what we're really considering is an issue of comfort within a role. We've individually envisioned our own theoretical check-sheet for "what it means" to be a teacher, scholar, collaborator, etc, but we also know that these definitions can be broadened and compacted accordingly and are not just limited to the graduate or scholastic world. The malleability of these different titles, as Robert points out, can change according to the task at hand, or how our egos are feeling on any given day. While I’d like to identify as all of the above, and while I know I meet certain criteria that allows me to identify as such, teacher and collaborator are not roles I’m comfortable with. I recognize the obvious overlap between independent researcher, scholar, and student, at least for the purposes of what I do, but I’m not a teacher because I'm creating a syllabus and I’m not a collaborator because I yoink someone else’s research in order to support or refute my own. In order to identify as teacher and/or collaborator I will need to legitimize (whatever that means) myself over time by founding those roles on principles of reciprocity. At least, that's how my theoretical check-sheet sees it.