Kathas of Desi Women in Pardes: De/colonizing Formal and Informal Structures in Higher Education

In this chapter, the author uses a storied format to trace her journey to ground her ethnographic work in South Asian ontoepistemologies, which she terms Par/Desi, and identifies six framing tenets of this work. The author discusses how existing work on decolonizing ontoepistemologies and methodologies has been at once inspiring for its unapologetic stance and cultural grounding, and limiting given its lack of cultural resonance with her South Asian sensibilities. Using abbreviated ethnodramatic scenes, the author does a Par/Desi reading of the scenes, integrated with her own Par/Desi negotiations. She wrote this chapter to create the work she wished to read in graduate school when first conducting her dissertation research. The author hopes this chapter will provide direction for other similarly-situated scholars, inspiring them to weave together their culturally-situated critical and de/colonial framing with appropriate methodological moves.