Chapter 1: The Diffracted Wave in Comparative and International Education's Cinematic Spaces and Ourselves: Toward Pluriversal Thinking and New Conversations

Unlike other contributions in this edited volume, we, Anna, Cathryn, and Winne, as a fleeting cut-together-apart (Barad, 2014) writing collective, decided to delay the “declaration” of our respective positionalities until the end of the chapter, as the notion of an individual occupying a defined position, laying claim to a particular set of categorizable attributes is antithetical to the working of this piece of writing. While we are undeniably three individuals leading separate lives, the porosity of boundaries and instability of identities underscored the becomings of this piece of writing and the three of us as a writing collective every step of the way. Writing together has created ebbs and flows that pulled, tossed, and carried us and the process of writing. It is this sense of being carried by currents heading toward unexpected, unforeseen directions that we hope to share with readers of this chapter, and it is for this reason that our respective positionalities – as a necessity of academic publishing – is addressed only at the end of this chapter.