Abstract:This article illuminates how the stories that we tell and retell to understand ourselves... more Abstract:This article illuminates how the stories that we tell and retell to understand ourselves, others, and our cultural positions are forever vulnerable to change. It traces a narrative researcher's experience conducting open-ended interviews with elders in the beginning stages of memory loss, through a combination of field notes, performance of personal narrative analysis, and autoethnography. In addition to grappling with her own inevitable physical vulnerability, three participants’ narratives challenged three familiar personal stories that she retells to make sense of my past, present, and future relationships. The article closes with a call to embrace the vulnerability of stories to change, leaving us forever open to new possibilities, connections, and understandings of what it means to be human with others.
This essay traces a co-exploration into understanding aging, memory, and purpose through the anal... more This essay traces a co-exploration into understanding aging, memory, and purpose through the analysis of elders stories told during varying stages of memory loss. Responding to the prompt, “What are the memories you don’t want to forget?” participants told stories of “culturally uncomfortable” identities they worried no one else prioritized remembering. As the researchers, we were faced with the struggle to continue human connection beyond vulnerable, inescapably mortal bodies. We analyze our reactions within our analysis of their stories to offer a dynamic means to make sense of data, ourselves, and shared cultural responsibility through telling and listening to personal narratives.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals’ Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants’ open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed ‘unprofessional’ bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narrat...
Embodied Performance as Applied Research, Art and Pedagogy is a book that I was able to follow th... more Embodied Performance as Applied Research, Art and Pedagogy is a book that I was able to follow through social media while it was being written. I couldn’t predict what the author would ultimately include in the book, but the fact that it was a labor of love was clear. Julie-Ann Scott starts off by telling readers that she wrote this book for multiple audiences. It is not intended to simply be used in an undergraduate seminar, or for a graduate performance troupe. Scott wrote this book for anyone who is a student of, teaching in, or connected to the arts – or is interested in performance and performance pedagogy, generally. The book is framed in the embodied experiences of the author. Her pedagogy and her storytelling implicate the body in an unapologetic visceral manner that illustrates the experience of disability that resonates within our community. This book explains how someone can use performance as a methodological tool for inquiry through an autoethnographic lens for performance studies. Scott frames the idea of hyper-embodiment as the pin that holds all of this together. More on this later. In the first chapter, “Researcher Positioning as Embodied Experience,” Scott shares one of her earliest memories. She is sitting in the front seat of her mother’s car in a Kmart parking lot. The car is hot; she is sweaty, but her hair is held up with two pink elastic bands, and she is dressed in something that makes her feel pretty. She catches the sad eyes of another mother holding the hand of her abled daughter, and in that moment, something changes.
Twenty-six self-defined physically disabled professionals’ open-ended personal narratives from ... more Twenty-six self-defined physically disabled professionals’ open-ended personal narratives from a performance perspective highlight the cultural struggle over physically disabled professional identity. Physically disabled professional identity materializes through the performance of four ‘hero’ characters engaging in ongoing social ‘battles’ that reference American and Judeo-Christian myths. The heroes re-emerge across narratives as a means to negotiate the anxiety surrounding the physically disabled body performing within a cultural space that seeks to render the body irrelevant in its pursuit of cerebral reasoning and intellect. Physically disabled professional ‘heroes,’ allow cultural members to reduce complex people into basic characters that avoid facing human mortality. Acknowledging culturally constituted heroes provides a means to potentially dismantle the stigma surrounding the physically disabled body in daily performance.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals' Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants' open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed `unprofessional' bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narratives of professionalism.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals' Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants' open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed `unprofessional' bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narratives of professionalism.
This piece emerged from conversations with twelve women ranging in age from 23 to 34. The authors... more This piece emerged from conversations with twelve women ranging in age from 23 to 34. The authors of this paper organized the gatherings and directed the discussion. The idea for this paper was born in 2007 as Julie-Ann sat in a graduate studies topic course, Advertising ...
Abstract:This article illuminates how the stories that we tell and retell to understand ourselves... more Abstract:This article illuminates how the stories that we tell and retell to understand ourselves, others, and our cultural positions are forever vulnerable to change. It traces a narrative researcher's experience conducting open-ended interviews with elders in the beginning stages of memory loss, through a combination of field notes, performance of personal narrative analysis, and autoethnography. In addition to grappling with her own inevitable physical vulnerability, three participants’ narratives challenged three familiar personal stories that she retells to make sense of my past, present, and future relationships. The article closes with a call to embrace the vulnerability of stories to change, leaving us forever open to new possibilities, connections, and understandings of what it means to be human with others.
This essay traces a co-exploration into understanding aging, memory, and purpose through the anal... more This essay traces a co-exploration into understanding aging, memory, and purpose through the analysis of elders stories told during varying stages of memory loss. Responding to the prompt, “What are the memories you don’t want to forget?” participants told stories of “culturally uncomfortable” identities they worried no one else prioritized remembering. As the researchers, we were faced with the struggle to continue human connection beyond vulnerable, inescapably mortal bodies. We analyze our reactions within our analysis of their stories to offer a dynamic means to make sense of data, ourselves, and shared cultural responsibility through telling and listening to personal narratives.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals’ Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants’ open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed ‘unprofessional’ bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narrat...
Embodied Performance as Applied Research, Art and Pedagogy is a book that I was able to follow th... more Embodied Performance as Applied Research, Art and Pedagogy is a book that I was able to follow through social media while it was being written. I couldn’t predict what the author would ultimately include in the book, but the fact that it was a labor of love was clear. Julie-Ann Scott starts off by telling readers that she wrote this book for multiple audiences. It is not intended to simply be used in an undergraduate seminar, or for a graduate performance troupe. Scott wrote this book for anyone who is a student of, teaching in, or connected to the arts – or is interested in performance and performance pedagogy, generally. The book is framed in the embodied experiences of the author. Her pedagogy and her storytelling implicate the body in an unapologetic visceral manner that illustrates the experience of disability that resonates within our community. This book explains how someone can use performance as a methodological tool for inquiry through an autoethnographic lens for performance studies. Scott frames the idea of hyper-embodiment as the pin that holds all of this together. More on this later. In the first chapter, “Researcher Positioning as Embodied Experience,” Scott shares one of her earliest memories. She is sitting in the front seat of her mother’s car in a Kmart parking lot. The car is hot; she is sweaty, but her hair is held up with two pink elastic bands, and she is dressed in something that makes her feel pretty. She catches the sad eyes of another mother holding the hand of her abled daughter, and in that moment, something changes.
Twenty-six self-defined physically disabled professionals’ open-ended personal narratives from ... more Twenty-six self-defined physically disabled professionals’ open-ended personal narratives from a performance perspective highlight the cultural struggle over physically disabled professional identity. Physically disabled professional identity materializes through the performance of four ‘hero’ characters engaging in ongoing social ‘battles’ that reference American and Judeo-Christian myths. The heroes re-emerge across narratives as a means to negotiate the anxiety surrounding the physically disabled body performing within a cultural space that seeks to render the body irrelevant in its pursuit of cerebral reasoning and intellect. Physically disabled professional ‘heroes,’ allow cultural members to reduce complex people into basic characters that avoid facing human mortality. Acknowledging culturally constituted heroes provides a means to potentially dismantle the stigma surrounding the physically disabled body in daily performance.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals' Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants' open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed `unprofessional' bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narratives of professionalism.
This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within rese... more This essay provides a rationale of how Performance Analysis and Narrative Positioning within research on Physically Disabled Professionals' Personal Narratives can provide insight into the role of the body in the analysis of professional narratives. Through analyzing the participants' open-ended narratives as performances in which the narrators draw upon performativities to reconcile the absurdity associated with their deemed `unprofessional' bodies legitimately occupying a professional space, the author traces the emergence of embodied professional heroes in four variations: the Super Hero, Warrior Hero, Tragic Hero, and Rogue Hero, each which illuminates the importance of the body in the construction of personal narratives of professionalism. In conclusion, the author calls for attention to the potential performance of the Anti Hero across personal narratives that emerge in unmarked bodies in order to attend the underlying performativities and discourses of power within all narratives of professionalism.
This piece emerged from conversations with twelve women ranging in age from 23 to 34. The authors... more This piece emerged from conversations with twelve women ranging in age from 23 to 34. The authors of this paper organized the gatherings and directed the discussion. The idea for this paper was born in 2007 as Julie-Ann sat in a graduate studies topic course, Advertising ...
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