Where is the scholar?

I enjoyed the part of the Sterne reading that discussed how cultural studies attempts to put "the scholar in the analysis" through the use of methods like autoethnography. What concerns me though is what I sense as a willingness to accept scholars from other areas that don't do this. My argument is not that all scholarly writing should be rooted in autoethnography but rather that all scholarly research does need to attend to the choices that were made and the ways that those choices are informed by the identity of the scholar. Sterne writes that "rigid adherance to a particular theory or practice of method is good when seeking certain kinds of academic legitimacy..." (264). Shouldn't scholars who seek "academic legitimacy" also be pushed to critically think about their methodological choices as opposed to following a the mindless steps of some method simply for the sake of adhering to a strict method?