“Just Act Normal”: Concussion and the (Re)negotiation of Athletic Identity

In this autoethnography, I describe my own personal experiences and dealings with a sport-related concussion. In particular, I focus on the (re)negotiation of my student- athlete identity due to the repercussive affects of concussion. Weaving together personal narratives with Erving Goffman’s presentation of self theory, I attempt to highlight some of the complexities of the injury in relation to athletic identity, and use the theory as a departure point to further discuss how sport-related concussion can be understood within a socio-cultural context. In doing so, I attempt to move beyond my own personal experiences, as a way to comment on the larger social, cultural, and political forces that affect how athletes come to understand and embody concussion.