Fields of Play

Constructing an Academic Life. How do the circumstances in which we write affect what we write? In a series of traditional and experimental writings, the author records an intellectual journey, creating new ways of reading and writing. The sociological imagination is applied to the act of writing, as life is connected to work. 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.