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(Online) 2519-5638,(Print) 2415-0991  \n~~ ~~ Page 1 of 11  \nOrigina~~l Research ~~  \nBetween human and researcher: Reclaiming embodied knowledge in the academy  \nAuthors:  \nJennifer Whittingham1  Sthembile Ndwandwe1  Jessica Lavelle1  Jessica Fortes1   \nAffiliations:  \n1Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, Faculty of Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa  \nCorresponding author:  \nJennifer Whittingham, [jenw@live.co.uk](jenw@live.co.uk)  \nDates:  \nReceived: 28 Feb. 2025  \nAccepted: 31 May 2025  \nPublished: 01 Dec. 2025  \nHow to cite this article:  \nWhittingham, J., Ndwandwe, S., Lavelle, J. & Fortes, J., 2025,‘Between human and researcher: Reclaiming embodied knowledge in the academy’, Transformation in Higher Education 10(0), a554 . [https://doi.org/10.4102/the](https://doi.org/10.4102/the). v10i0.554  \nCopyright:  \n© 2025. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.  \nRead online:  \nScan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online.  \nThis article explores the ontological conflict between two academic identities: the human as an embodied, emotional being, and the researcher as a detached intellectual operating solely through reason. We examine how social science research within neoliberal universities perpetuates this division by marginalising emotional and embodied ways of knowing, questioning whether one can authentically exist as both human and researcher within institutions that enforce knowledge production through detachment and abstraction. Despite academia’s claims of embracing anti-imperial, postcolonial, and decolonial epistemologies, these commitments remain largely theoretical, while rationalist approaches continue to dominate. Humanised research methods and emotional experiences, particularly in fieldwork, continue to be marginalised, as researchers’ discomfort routinely dismissed rather than recognised as meaningful data. Decolonial epistemologies grounded in emotional, spiritual, and embodied knowledge fundamentally challenge Northern ontologies that privilege detachment and reductionism. As students and early-career researchers, we employed collaborative autoethnography to critically examine our academic positionalities. Through three reflexive workshops (2022–2024) at the University of Cape Town and the Political Ecology Network conference in Durban, participants utilised meditation as emotional methodology, exploring which truths are negated by researcher rationalism and how these negations impede institutional transformation. Drawing on feminist epistemologies, decolonial theory, and critiques of neoliberalism, we analyse tensions in fieldwork and knowledge production, arguing that discomfort functions as a powerful site of truth-telling and catalyst for higher education transformation. Rather than silencing affective dimensions, we embrace them as transformative humanising praxis that moves beyond the harmful limitations of traditional academic approaches towards life-affirming expressions of our political potential as human beings.  \nContribution: We propose a meditative practice as an emotional methodology to unmask and humanise the researcher, facilitate reflexivity and critical conversations, and develop concrete strategies for inhabiting both researcher and human subjectivities within a more humanised academic praxis.  \nKeywords: emotions; humanising; academia; transformation; emotional methodologies; research; collaborative autoethnography; embodied methodology.  \nIntroduction  \nA growing body of scholarship examines the role of emotions in academic institutions and research processes, with emotional geographies (Anderson & Smith 2001; Davidson & Milligan 2004; Wright 2012) providing crucial insights into how feelings and spaces intersect in knowledge production. This work challenges the dichotomy between objectivity and subjectivity and moves be","cbCailh4R5mvTj54","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCailh4R5mvTj54","pdf",520210,11,"English","# Introduction\n## Neoliberal knowledge production and emotional marginalisation\n## Meditative emotional methodology\n## Collaborative autoethnography and reflexive workshops","[{\"question\":\"What central conflict does the article examine between human and researcher identities?\",\"answer\":\"It examines the ontological conflict between existing as an embodied, emotional human and as a detached, reason-driven researcher within institutions that enforce knowledge production through detachment and abstraction.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article connect neoliberal universities to the marginalisation of embodied knowing?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that social science research in neoliberal universities perpetuates this division by marginalising emotional and embodied ways of knowing, dismissing researchers’ discomfort rather than treating it as meaningful data.\"},{\"question\":\"What method do the authors use to explore these issues and support higher education transformation?\",\"answer\":\"They employ collaborative autoethnography and three reflexive workshops, using meditation as an emotional methodology to investigate which truths are negated by rationalism and how those negations impede institutional transformation.\"}]","Between human and researcher - Reclaiming embodied knowledge in the academy | PDF",1792042829,28]