This edited book is a refreshing and unique exploration of how personal experiences and backgrounds shape academic journeys. Through autoethnographic inquiries, contributions shed light on the complex factors influencing doctoral students’ choices of dissertation topics in applied linguistics.

Foreword  Farah Ali List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Opening the Dialogue: An Autoethnographic Account of Choosing My Dissertation Topic in Applied Linguistics  Luis Javier Pentón Herrera 2 The Influence of Educational and Professional Experiences on Writing a Doctoral Research Proposal in Educational Linguistics: An Autoethnographic Study  Justyna Legutko 3 The Autoethnographer, or, There and Back Again: Revisiting My Decision to Write an Autoethnographic Dissertation  Ufuk Keles 4 More than a Researcher: (Re)Constructing Identities through the Research Process  Valéria Schörghofer-Queiroz 5 Researcher Identity and the Formation of an Analytical Lens in Applied Linguistics: An Autoethnographic Exploration  Akiko Kiyota 6 My Dissertation as an Assemblage of Identities, Motivations, and Experiences  Anna Becker 7 Bihotzean Dagoena, PdD-ra Irten: An Autoethnographic Account of My Journey as an International Researcher in the Antipodes Choosing a Dissertation Topic in Applied Linguistics  Jaione Diaz Mazquiaran 8 Navigating Imposter Syndrome as an NNEST: My Journey in Choosing My Dissertation Topic  Xuewei He 9 Interpreting to Survive: An Autoethnographic Account of Child Language Brokering during My Dissertation  Marc Tamarit-Galdón 10 My UAE-Nique Story: Navigating Dubai’s Cultural Landscape as a Third Culture Student  Angel Merchant Afterword: Dissertationing as Unapologetically Embodied Queer Experiences  Ethan Trinh Index