Navigating the Null Lived Curriculum of Grief: Difficult Knowledge, Narrative Research and Speaking the Unspeakable

• In Event: Unforgetting Difficult Knowledge and Constructing Possibilities through Narrative Research

Abstract

How do the stories we do not tell, the null lived curriculum of dark funds of knowledge shape us? (Cabiles, 2025, Zipin, 2009).This paper draws from a larger autoethnographic study seeking to gain a better understanding of how the narratives—spoken and unspoken--about the accidental shooting that killed my fiancé--constructed and continue to reconstruct how I perceive/d myself as a griever, an educator, and a researcher, as well as how this tragedy shapes the stories my family tells about itself along with those we are usually reluctant to tell.

Author

• Sara Simpson, University of texas rio grande valley