This inaugural lecture is based on my lifelong study aimed at providing a better understanding of academic socialisation. It also set out to highlight how academics reflexively construct their academic identities. By combining my narrative and auto-ethnography studies, I suggest that the transformation of individuals' identities as academics was the outcome of active participation in various communities of practice throughout our careers. As academics, we need to continuously learn to engage and position ourselves within the various communities of practice that we choose to participate in. Academics need to make sense and negotiate their identities through accommodating with the power relations, ideology, cultures and ways embedded within the communities of practice of which they are members. Instead of looking at academics as passive participants, I share evidences of individuals' voluntarism and agency in constructing one's academic identities. This lecture contributes to the continuing discussion on academic socialisation as an extension and continuing education experiences of academics moving through different stages in their careers. Demystifying the professional socialisation as a continuing education process as well as illuminating the dynamics of academic identity construction in academia may benefit other academics in navigating their future career undertakings. © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press 2022. All rights reserved.
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