Becoming an academic can be an overwhelming, if not a completely consuming, experience, and conceptualising this process is often fraught with a lack of understanding of both the process and the subsequent implications. Many academics struggle with the notion of who they are, despite believing that they are aware of who they want to be and where they are situated on their academic journey.

This edited collection draws on the experiences of early and mid-career academics, as well as leaders in the field, to explore the role and contribution of the self when professionally undertaking research. Each chapter addresses valuable questions for academics to examine and articulate the self in one’s work, and encourages the probing of the impact of academic engagement in higher education on individual fidelity to personal and professional values, beliefs and assumptions. With a focus on self-methodologies, including arts-based approaches to reflective and reflexive practice, the authors showcase methods that go beyond traditional reflective practice and explore the interplay of arts and self-practices.

Conceptualising the Academic Self offers transformative educational insights with both theoretical and practical applications. It serves as a comprehensive guide for novice academics to seasoned educators and researchers, as well as institutional leaders and policy influencers, addressing the challenges of self-conceptualisation and self-formation.

Victoria I. Ekpo is a lecturer in English Language Education and currently works as a College Liaison Tutor at Leeds Trinity University, UK. She is also a co-convenor of the Philosophy of Education SIG at BERA.

David Allan is Reader in Professional Education and Learning at Edge Hill University, UK and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Prism: Casting New Light on Learning, Theory and Practice. He has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals and books and has experience in editing special issues of journals.