Why are you in disaster studies? Liberating future scholars from oppressive disaster science

PurposeThe question of "why we are in disaster studies" can be essential to reflect on discourses and practices - as students, researchers and professors - in constituting an oppressive disaster science and finding ways to liberate from it.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on autobiographical research and institutional ethnography to observe and analyze the discourses and practices about career trajectories as students, researchers and professors in disaster studies.FindingsThe paper provides some categories, concepts, theoretical approaches and lived experiences helpful for discussing ways of liberating disaster studies, such as public sociology of disaster.Originality/valueFew papers have focused on professional trajectories in disaster studies, bringing insights from public sociology and questioning oppressive disaster science.