Queer Performative Autoethnography as Antioppressive Education

• In Event: Queer Performative Autoethnography as Antioppressive Education

Abstract

1. Objectives/purposes: This performance-based session aims to articulate theoretical and artistic frameworks supporting queer performative autoethnography as a uniquely effective tool in anti-oppressive education. Given the constantly emerging need for educational research and praxis committed to challenging inequity at personal, communal, and global levels, a commitment to anti-oppressive education and its required educator/researcher reflexivity is more urgent than ever. It is argued that through the use of artistic autoethnographic inquiry, educators are better able to engage in the rigorous reflexive critique necessary to serve as anti-oppressive educators.

2. Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
The session draws on the theoretical framework of a/r/tography and its unique intersectional analysis of artistic, research-based, and educational approaches (Irwin 2004.) Within the a/r/tographic lenses of artist/researcher/teacher, the session articulates a unique scholarly hybridization across several theoretical perspectives and scholars therein, including autoethnography (Spry, Ellis, Chang,) art and spirituality (Bickel, Snowber,) participatory theatre (Boal, Schutzman, Salverson,) anti-oppressive education, (Kumashiro, Regan,) a/r/tography, (Irwin, Leggo, Springgay, Gouzouasis,) and queer theology (Althaus-Reid, Heyward.)

3. Methods/Techniques, Modes Of Inquiry
Modes of inquiry include a/r/tographic inquiry and performative inquiry, with a particular emphasis on queer embodiment, spirituality, and educational praxes. Research methods employed include autoethnographic research as articulated by Spry, Ellis, and Chang, including autoethnographic data collection and analysis and triangulation through the use of sociocultural research and interpretation. Through an interweaving of reflexive and socio-political research strands, a queer performative autoethnographic presentation will articulate research findings and raise new areas of inquiry for both the researcher and the audience.

4. Data Sources, Evidence, Objects, Or Materials
Data sources will be drawn from a wide range of scholarly literature in the fields of anti-oppressive education, queer theology, art and spirituality, participatory theatre, and autoethnography. Autoethnographic data will be mined and analyzed from the author’s lived experiences within queer educational and spiritual contexts.

5. Results And Or Substantiated Conclusions Or Warrants For Arguments / Point Of View
The theoretical and artistic outputs of this presentation will support the argument that through the use of artistic autoethnographic inquiry, educators are better able to engage in the rigorous reflexive critique necessary to serve as anti-oppressive educators.

6. Scientific Or Scholarly Significance Of The Study Or Work
Queer performative autoethnography, with a strong theoretical base drawn from multiple academic disciplines, brings a uniquely evocative research perspective to anti-oppressive education. The presentation offers a unique hybridization across several disciplines including autoethnography, arts and spirituality, participatory theatre, anti-oppressive education, and queer theology. While several of these pairings have been explored by other scholars, this particular cross-disciplinary combination offers an emergent and heretofore unexplored academic and artistic framework that looks at the intersectionality of art, queer identity, spirituality, and anti-oppressive education. The artistic performance represents an expressive articulation of this queerly-hybrid form of scholarly inquiry. In so doing, the theoretical and artistic frameworks presented articulate and push forward a new scholarly framework supported by an integrated creative praxis.

Author

• Kerri Mesner, The University of British Columbia