Academic developers work in zones marked by uncertainty and ambiguity. One response to the uncertainties about who we are and our place in the academy is to assert and defend a particular identity. I critically engage with such a response from a "mourning after" standpoint that values an unsettled identity. There I find the possibility for a less defensive, even more productive, basis for relations with ourselves as academic developers and with the colleagues alongside whom we work. I illustrate this possibility with reference to working with graduate research supervisors. (Contains 2 notes.)