The COVID Conversations: A Poststructural Feminist Self-Study From Four Female Academics During the Pandemic

• In Event: Understanding Teacher Education Through an Arts-Based, Post-Human, Nonlinear Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a collaborative self-study undertaken by four female academics working as tenured faculty in universities in both Canada and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. This self-study utilizes a poststructural feminist framework to analyze and present findings from nine separate free-flowing yet organized conversations that took place between March 2020 and June 2021, centering on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the participant/researchers’ perceptions of the blurring of their personal and professional contexts. We share this work to hopefully serve as a form of support and mentorship for female academics working both during the pandemic and after, normalizing and interrogating their contexts situated at the intersections of policy, power, and societal expectation.

Authors

• Amy Burns, University of Calgary

• Erica R Hamilton, Grand Valley State University

• Alison E Leonard, Clemson University

• Linda Taylor, Ball State University