Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life

by Laurel Richardson

How do the specific circumstances in which we write affect what we write? How does what we write affect who we become? How can we maintain professsional and personal integrity in today's university? In a series of traditional and experimental writings, a culmination of ten years of works-in-progress, Laurel Richardson records an intellectual journey, displacing boundaries and creating new ways of reading and writing. Applying the sociological imagination to the writing process, she connects her life to her work.

Deeply engaging, movingly written with grace, elegance, and clarity, the book stimulates readers to situate their own writing in personal, social, and political contexts.

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

About the author

Laurel Richardson (b. 1936) is an American sociologist known for her work on qualitative sociology and the sociology of gender. Her numerous works include Writing Strategies: Reaching Diverse Audiences, The New Other Woman, and The Dynamics of Sex and Gender. She has received numerous commendations and honors for her work, including a Feminist Mentor Award frm the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and a commendation from the Ohio state legislature for her work on reducing inequality. Richardson received her undergraduate education at Shimer College, where she enrolled through the early entrance program, and at the University of Chicago. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. She is currently a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University, where she taught from 1969 to her retirement in 2004. (from Shimer College Wiki)

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the experience of reading this book. It pushes at boundaries, pushed at my boundaries. I see more clearly certain things - the potential of post-structuralism to open things up in academia, the inevitable resistances to this, the need to define and communicate knowledge in ways that go beyond the traditional, that return us to the lived lives of particular people in particular contexts. It's a thoroughly enjoyable book to read, and at the same time is one that I want to keep thinking about, to study.

[Stuart Macalpine]

Just read parts suggested by Ian Tymms, but a really interesting account of the way that 'narrative knowing' shapes academic knowledge and frames the way we understand and seek evidence in the world around us. Thanks, Ian. I'll get the book back to you soon.