Performing the Epic Self Across Time and Space: A Post-Qualitative Inquiry into an Immigrant Teacher’s Becoming

This postqualitative inquiry uses performance, inspired by Brecht’s epic theatre, to explore my immigrant life in New Zealand and Australia (2009–2025). It mobilizes theory through performative practices to generate affective knowledge and challenge binary identities of immigrant and teacher. Rejecting reductive analysis, walking is used as both metaphor and method for diffractive inquiry, revealing the immigrant self as emergent. Through fragmented narratives and performance text, the thesis illuminates the interplay of being and becoming, offering a post-phenomenological lens on situated knowledge. This PhD project contributes to broader discussions of embodiment, marginality, and the empowering potential of creative scholarship.