ABSTRACT
This paper creatively revisits the fable of the ugly duckling through the lens of a young, working-class, non-Western woman navigating the contradictions of academic life. Told through allegorical characters drawn from the academic world (frogs, pigs, snakes, ducks, swans), the story unfolds as a critical autoethnography that maps the emotional, financial, and political struggles of underdog scholars from the Global South. Anchored in postcolonial, feminist, and intersectional sensibilities, the narrative reflects on what it means to become an academic within institutions shaped by colonial legacies, class hierarchies, and normative ideals of professionalism. As the duckling journeys between marginalization and partial belonging, “not quite a swan,” the text reveals the paradoxes of legitimacy, the violence of normalization, and the quiet rebellion of creative, peripheral voices. Through metaphor and memory, this hybrid text offers a situated account of academic becoming, contributing to growing conversations on epistemic injustice, academic borderlands, and the politics of voice in knowledge production.