Rejecting Labels and Colonization: In Exile From Post-Qualitative Approaches

Abstract

In this paper, I trace my pathways of de/colonial ontoepistemic orientations to qualitative research. I identify the work I do without the need for post-qualitative labels, noting that post-qualitative scholars purport to open up expansive spaces by moving away from such forms of labeling, structuring, belonging, and maintaining categories. I discuss how my academic trajectories, culminating in the current moment, have always already positioned me to engage in culturally congruent inquiry that challenges western structures of superiority of knowledge construction. To discover and incorporate into my approaches to qualitative inquiry, that which I have been unable to think about or think with, I journey through a process of un/learning and self-exile.