What knot to do: Academia needs more dyslexic thinkers and mentors
What knot to do: Academia needs more dyslexic thinkers and mentors
- October 15, 2026
- Roxanne Varzi, anthropology, makes an argument in this piece for Insider Higher Ed that doctoral students should be allowed to pursue multimodal research in lieu of the traditional written dissertatio
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“Eight years ago, I wrote “The Knot in the Wood: The Call to Multimodal Anthropology” (published in the American Anthropologist) using woodcarving as a metaphor for working with diverse research materials. When woodcarvers come to a knot in the wood, rather than extracting the knot, they respect the material’s unique nature and work with it. For example, working with visuals may naturally lead to making a film.
Since the publication of my essay, I’ve been asked to teach courses on multimodality, give talks and workshops, and serve on boards of professional organizations and academic journals to create peer-review guidelines for multimodal work—because in the age of AI, public mistrust of science and a proliferation of fake news, getting original research out in accessible formats is vital.
At the same time, I have been deeply involved in teaching and advocating for students with learning disabilities.”
Continue reading at Inside Higher Ed.
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