Positioning positionality: global and transatlantic perspectives on identity as early career researchers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexities of positionality and power in academic production across intersecting identities amongst a cohort of four early career scholars across the UK and the USA. Design/methodology/approach Four early career researchers engage in autoethnography, examining their perspectives and identities in conversation with approaches to positionality in academia and research in the social sciences. Findings Drawing from their own unique intersectionalities, each author traces the limits, boundaries and risks afforded to them in the pursuit of academic life and research in the social sciences, especially in pertinence to their relationship to politics in context and sensitivity of their research areas. Originality/value This original research constitutes uniquely specific viewpoints on the relationship of four specifically positioned early career scholars to their personal identities and their transposition into professional and academic life and work.