Application for Admission: The Poetics of Erasure in Doctoral Education

Abstract

This manuscript takes the form of a social fiction doctoral application that refuses pretense. Framed as an admissions packet, it blends autoethnography, poetry, and political critique to confront the growing legislative assault on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education. These assaults, though cloaked in new rhetoric, extend a long-standing tradition: the erasure of marginalized epistemologies within doctoral education. Structured as a hybrid dossier, complete with reflective essays, imagined recommendations, and lyrical interludes, the manuscript examines how doctoral programs across varied contexts are either resisting or reinforcing this erasure. Positioned within a comparative framework, it explores how global and national pressures shape institutional responses to anti-DEI mandates and what these tensions reveal about the trajectory of doctoral education. Ultimately, the manuscript challenges the academy to confront its complicity in silencing dissent and to reimagine doctoral study as a crucible for epistemic justice, where knowledge is not policed but pluralized.