Critical Race Composite Counter Storytelling as Appropriate Methodology to “Wrestle the White Beast”

Being a Brown woman in academia remains a minority experience. Racialized students within the ivory tower consistently experience microaggressions and violence through institutionally biased university curricula, programs, and policies. Using personal storytelling and narrative to describe my experience of navigating academic dynamics in a public institution in Canada, this article seeks to demystify and dismantle the challenges of navigating graduate school as a woman of colour, specifically in relation to finding an appropriate methodology for my doctoral dissertation research. In this article I will unpack my use of critical race theory’s composite counter storytelling methodology. I look at my process for creating Beti, a composite counterstory of the ten racialized and Indigenous activists I interviewed, and some of the challenges and limitations I encountered in this process. This methodology seeks to improve access and inclusion for racialized students researching their own communities within academic institutions and beyond.