No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In this postcolonial gendered autoethnography, I critically examine how my understanding of home was first imprinted and how, once dislocated, I have negotiated my desire for and imagination of home. I argue that colonialism and patriarchy are interconnected structures of oppression that contribute to individuals’ understandings of home. For transnationals, a dislocated understanding of home need not result from migration but can arise long before oceans are crossed. Specifically, I emphasize how readily the notion of home is romanticized, silencing disruptive understandings of home. I trace how trauma-infused understandings of home reveal the consequences of feeling continuously uprooted and exiled. Thus, the fragmentations surrounding the notions of home, old country, and new country show movements in liminalities, where “home” is a site of experience, memory, desire, hope, and imagination.

De/colonial methodologies and ontoepistemologies have gained popularity in the academic discourses emerging from Global North perspectives over the last decade. However, such perspectives often erase the broader global agenda of de/colonizing research, praxis, and activism that could be initiated and engaged with beyond the issue of land repatriation, as that is not the only agenda in de/colonial initiatives. In this chapter, I coin a framework, Par/Des(i), with six tenets, and offer three actionable methodological turns grounded in transnational de/colonial ontoepistemologies. I locate, situate, and trace the Par/Des(i) framework within the South Asian diasporic discourses and lived realities as evidenced from my empirical work with transnational South Asian women, my community, and my colleagues. Therefore, I offer possibilities of being, knowing, and enacting de/colonizing methodologies in our work, when engaging with the Par/Des(i) framework, with an invitation for an expanded conversation.