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Rupturing the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourse through collective memoir

Gail Crimmins (School of Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, Australia)
Alison L. Black (School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, Australia)
Janice K. Jones (University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia)
Sarah Loch (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
Julianne Impiccini (Central Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia)

Qualitative Research Journal

ISSN: 1443-9883

Article publication date: 16 August 2019

Issue publication date: 16 October 2019

98

Abstract

Purpose

The authors, seven women–writers–performers–artists–academics, have been working collectively for a year, storying, de-storying and re-storying the experience of our lives. The authors write to “taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect” (Nin, 1976), to uncover and learn ourselves through writing (Richardson, 1997), to take the “risky” steps of talking to each other about our inner lives (Palmer, 1998). Cognisant of the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourses, in form and content, and heavily confined by neoliberal expectations to count and be counted, we write and express the stories of lives the authors did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. Our expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is designed as a collective memoir.

Findings

The authors write and express the stories of lives we did not choose or imagine – lives we are given and live through. The expression inhabits aesthetic, contemplative and sensory ways of knowing and employs poetry, image, song and story to create a polyvocal account of women’s lives, voices, struggles and learning. The authors share here part of our collective memoir and its development.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on autoethnography and lived experience.

Originality/value

Auto-ethnography/lived experience offers rich insights into the personal and political actions and actors within higher education.

Keywords

Citation

Crimmins, G., Black, A.L., Jones, J.K., Loch, S. and Impiccini, J. (2019), "Rupturing the limitations and masculinities of traditional academic discourse through collective memoir", Qualitative Research Journal, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 380-390. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-03-2019-0025

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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