Wrestling with the Right Side Of History: On Discourse, Pedagogy, Time, and the Ethics of Critical Scholarship

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Published: Jul 25, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/grsr.42199
Keywords:
reflexivity, CDS, critical applied linguistics, critical theory, critical pedagogy, historical thinking
Panayota Gounari
University of Massachusetts Boston
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2015-9513
Abstract

This reflexive piece offers a critical reflection on my scholarly trajectory by mapping the theoretical and political commitments that have shaped my academic work over time. Drawing from lived experiences of dislocation, and political urgency, I trace how my scholarship has developed across three interrelated thematic domains: (1) the discursive construction and normalization of far-right authoritarianism, (2) the ideological functions of education as a contested site within capitalist structures, and (3) the centrality of historical thinking as a methodological, epistemological, and political imperative. Grounded in Critical Theory —particularly the Frankfurt School— and articulated through Critical Discourse Studies and Critical Pedagogy, I examine how my work has aimed to expose and disrupt the logics of neoliberalism, authoritarianism, and epistemic violence. Across these domains, I argue that critique is not a methodological add-on but a historically and politically situated praxis. This paper is both an intellectual memoir and a synthesis of scholarly contributions, foregrounding the imperative to historicize, politicize, and radicalize intellectual labor in the service of social transformation.

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Author Biography
Panayota Gounari, University of Massachusetts Boston

Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Boston

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