Intermezzo

This intermezzo problematises the academic term ‘gap’, highlighting the multiple meanings it has. It considers the wealth of gaps in academic knowledge and doctoral study. There are gaps in our understanding of the natural, scientific, and social worlds. For example, we know little about the formation of the Universe and about Earth&s;s oceans. We do not know about the breadth of human experiences, as we marginalise certain forms of knowledge if they do not ‘fit’ expected academic norms, or focus on social justice and understandings of all bodies. Finding a gap can be a way to claim a territory and privileges particular knowledge. The end of this intermezzo argues that we should value more expansive ways to produce knowledge to help us understand human, non-human, and multispecies kin worlds.