Rave as Method: Community Engagement, Knowledge Co-production, and Creative Disruption in Academic Writing

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Arts based educational reesarch and critical narrative(s)

Abstract

This paper examines creative strategies for academic writing developed in non-traditional, “peripheral” environments. Building on research into writing practices—consistency, daily engagement, iterative feedback, and transforming strong emotions into creative fuel—we detail how embodied and immersive insights arise from participation and reflection in festival-based liminal spaces. Using autoethnography, we demonstrate how rave culture can foster knowledge creation and writing through experiential practice, community participation, and openness to serendipity, drawing on feedback from non-academic audiences through repeated storytelling and discussion. Drawing on extensive firsthand festival experience, we identify forms of insight, emotional sustenance, and creative momentum rarely found in conventional academic settings, and argue that “rave as method” offers a resilient and generative approach to knowledge production and academic writing.

Authors

• Alexander Fedorov, University of Hong Kong

• Euan Auld, The Education University of Hong Kong