“Let me live” - Exploring a Group of Bisexual SA University Students' Experiences in their Various Communities

Psycholog

Book as Body: The Meaning-Making of Artists' Books in the Health Humanities

This research-creation dissertation investigates how artists’ books’ text, images, form, materiality, and other sensory engagements merge to communicate lived experiences of illness and disability. I ask how the meanings of these abstracted book-bodies adapt and change when they are re-interpreted by readers, and how this can be an effective strategy for forming relational understandings of what it is like to live with illness. Within the framework of a phenomenological practice, I show the generative potential for empathy and intercorporeal exchange that often occurs when engaging with another’s artist’s book. Next, I describe past practices of artists who have deployed artists’ books in negotiating the biomedicalization of their illness experience. I then reflect upon my own contribution to the intersection of artists’ books and healthcare, Field Notes: How to Be With. Finally, I analyze the outcomes of artist’s book workshops I developed and conducted with multiple communities, including biomedical personnel. These distinct, but inter-related research-creation practices indicate how patient communities can devise tacit and multi-sensory expressions of embodied phenomena that may otherwise be difficult to communicate through verbal means alone. From a health humanities perspective, the pedagogical potential of reading and making artists’ books may assist in resisting systemic pressures for clinical efficiency and unseat biases towards illness and disability. This research-creation dissertation thus serves as a philosophical, pedagogical, and pragmatic example of how to engage with artists’ books in health contexts. It examines how the formation of archival, hand-made book objects constitutes a legacy of lived experience that may be called upon, again and again, to share and understand life, death, illness, health, unease, and wellbeing

Diverse Belongings: An Improvisational Inquiry Into Newcomer Worlds, Worldings, and the Literacies of Belonging

In an era of unprecedented global forced displacement, this artistic, multimodal dissertation explores experiences of belonging with a group of four adult newcomers to Canada. Using a post qualitative approach, the study couples the theoretical concepts of worlding and wonder with the work of Borderlands poets — non-western authors who write from the margins — to explore the creative texts created by the bi- and multilingual English learners from a decolonial stance. The study’s setting, during the Covid-19 pandemic, was an online translanguaging space, in which the participants’ linguistic, artistic, and multimodal repertoires were leveraged in meaning- making and artmaking, including drawings, paintings, digital photography, video and dual language poetry. Poetic transcripts were generated to re-present the participants’ resettlement stories. The findings reveal how affective and resonant worldings emerged through the serial immersion in experiences of belonging, not-belonging, and deeply felt liminal spaces between- belongings. Unworlding stories exposed disturbing examples of the participants’ loss of voice, of silencing in dominant English spaces, even among newcomers with English language proficiency. This inquiry seeks to contest dominant forms of academic knowledge and expand creative approaches within the post-qualitative paradigm to open new avenues for creative inquiry in language, literacy, and arts-based research

Unfolding Imagos: an inquiry into the aesthetics of Action-Phenomenology

In modern civilisation, magic in its instrumental (sorcerous) sense would appear to have been completely superseded by science, but that should not blind us to the (arguably) reliable efficacy of invocation, nor to the metaphysical implication of this efficacy–that it points to the psychophysical nature of reality.3 This thesis is an inquiry into the use of imagination as being restorative of identity. Working experimentally with poetic-aesthetic method—writings initially, then visual images—I use altered states of mind, and access to the otherworldly, in order to offer re-arrangements of local realities. Preoccupied as most people are with everyday realities, radical proposals—animism, enchantment, non-ordinary ways of knowing and being— don’t often find room: in our everyday lives, workplaces, relationships; or in action-inquiry. The body of this inquiry reflects the qualities of what Bachelard terms an immense philosophical daydream.4 My claim in-depth is, firstly that working with poetic-aesthetic method in this way is restorative: of individual, groups, societies; secondly, that the framings offered in Part V Light are the bases for further in depth research. Initially proposed as inquiry into the healing of disrupted identity (a consequence of organisational and procedural abuse), the focus of inquiry shifts, unfolds. Inquiry into writing, poetry, aesthetics gives way to a deeper inquiry into connectedness; uncovering healing engendered by Seeing connections: to the morethan- human world (animism), the otherworldly (enchantment). Questions of knowing and being surface, along with how to relate these back to the world. In A Language Older Than Words, Jensen relates a story of connecting a plant—a dracaena cane—to a polygraph. The story relates the plant’s responses to a researcher imagining harming it; plant becoming attuned to human; yoghurt responding to death of remote microbes. This leads to altered ways of knowing and being not often in our consciousness; preoccupied as we are with everyday realities.5 Atelier—a series of experimental practices—provokes deeper inquiry: into the nature and frameworks of inquiry, and, ultimately, theory. The problem, the contradiction the scientists are stuck with, is that of mind. Mind has no matter or energy but they can’t escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in the mind. Numbers exist only in the mind. I don’t get upset when they say that ghosts exist in the mind. It’s that only that gets me. Science is only in your mind too, its just that that doesn’t make it bad. Or ghosts either.6 Experience of trauma, abuse, offers distortions of mind and self. These distortions are ascribed as illness but provoked through the deepening inquiry of a series of experimental practices: referred to in this work as The Atelier. I come to suggest that this is a problem of mind; and of our relationship to the unscientific. Playing with these distortions unfolds access to rarely accessed realms: of consciousness; of seeing. Inquiring into these fields of identity reveals new putative fields: Imago-Unfolding; Via Arbora; 4th-Person Inquiry; Action- Phenomenology. These fields occur—in layers—throughout this text, and in mind

ETHICS AND POLITICS IN NEW EXTREME FILMS

PhD thesisThis thesis investigates a corpus of controversial, mainly European films from 1998 to 2013, to determine which features have led to their critical description as ‘new extreme’ films and according to what ethical framework ‘new extreme’ films operate. These films feature provocative depictions of sex and violence, and have been decried as misogynistic, homophobic and racist. I contend, firstly, that the extremity in ‘new extreme’ films is best understood as an unresolved tension between opposites such as inside/outside and convention/transgression. This definition draws on work on the ‘extreme’ by sociologist Patrick Baudry and art historian Paul Ardenne. Secondly, I argue that these films employ an ethical framework based on confrontational aesthetic strategies which challenge dominant interpretations of images of sex and violence, a framework similar to the image-based ethics of Kaja Silverman, Petra Kuppers and Wendy Kozol. In this way, ‘new extreme’ films destabilise interpretations of images of women, pornography, nationhood, sex, violence, race and sexuality. This thesis contends that a definition of extremity based on unresolved tensions elucidates the specificity of ‘new extreme’ films whose opposites manifest themselves on formal, aesthetic, narrative, generic and political levels. I argue that these opposites can be linked to an image- based ethical framework, both of which are best understood by examining what is visible or obscured, how close to or distanced from the images we feel and for how long we endure the images. Exploring visibility and obscurity (Krzywinska, White), haptics and sensation (Beugnet, Marks), and ‘processive’ duration (Keeling), I contend that particular strategies of visibility, proximity and duration provoke visceral reactions of disgust, arousal, nausea and shock. Using shocking visibility and undecipherable obscurity, haptic close-ups and distanced long shots, rapid editing and extended takes, new extreme films undermine stable viewing positions thereby challenging our interpretations of images of sex and violence

A retrospective narrative of the social and emotional experiences of growing up with a unilateral hearing loss

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. December 2017.Unilateral hearing loss (UHL), commonly known as 'single-sided deafness,' constitutes an ignored and under-researched population group. The limited existing research has established that persons with UHL tend to experience challenges in various social, emotional, language and academic areas, and thus persons with UHL experience more problems than previously realised. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the socio-emotional experiences of three persons with UHL. In addition, the researcher’s personal narrative as a person with UHL is included to provide another perspective. The participants were interviewed which provided narratives The theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological model (1977-2009) and Vygotsky's (1962-1998) theories of language were used to interpret the influence of a child's surrounding social and cultural environments, and their interactions. The narrative data were analysed and interpreted using coding and categorising processes. Findings from the personal narratives revealed themes of anger, isolation, frustration as well as, indicated that children with UHL require assistance regarding disclosing their hearing loss. Additionally, topics such as ‘teasing’, ‘disturbing experiences during hearing loss diagnosis’ and ‘feelings of loneliness’ were also revealed. This study established that a child's surrounding social and cultural environments play a significant role in shaping their attitudes and perceptions of their unilateral hearing loss, and not all of the participants experienced disabling social challenges. Those who have intervention opportunities such as counselling, develop more effective communication and coping skills required for persons with UHL. In addition, links between interventions and coping skills were also revealed. Recommendations for future research include investigating the links between a child with UHL, intervention and coping skills, with a particular focus on their quality of life experiences. Significantly, there is a need for intervention programmes that address the social and emotional needs of children with UHL on an individual basis. Keywords Unilateral hearing loss; hearing related quality of life; Coping skills; Expressive Language; Stories; Autoethnography; Narrative Inquiry.LG201

What are the experiential and phenomenological processes over time involved in the recovery from violence against women?’

This study introduces an epistemological and methodological framework based on the foundations of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith 1996), rooted in hermeneutic phenomenology, as a means to disclose the experiential and phenomenological processes over time involved in adult women recovering from violence. It has a relational element where the researcher adopts a dual role of practitioner-researcher, using the key Rogerian (1951) principles of non-judgmental positive regard, empathy, and congruence. This was considered a prerequisite due to the traumatic nature of the experiences the participants had been exposed to, and the aim to explore their recovery processes without causing them further harm. The existentials described by Van Manen (1997) of lived body, lived time, lived space and lived relations, enables an understanding of the individual experiences, but also an appreciation of the phenomenon of recovery. Bringing recovery from violence into focus in this way, enables a fresh perspective on recovery, and a consideration of how others may respond to this knowledge. In this study, six adult female participants were purposively selected and invited to share their experiences of their recovery journeys to date. Interviews were carried out weekly for up to six months, but with the option of continuing up to 12 months if the woman chose. Sessions typically came to a natural conclusion when the woman moved on from the refuge. The participants’ accounts provided insights into the embodied experience of recovery, how they experienced time and space, and the significance of relationships, including the research relationship. The participants moved at their own pace from experiencing the body as threat, to experiencing the body as strength. Some of the processes involved in this included: managing fragmentation and destruction of the self; managing power and control; negotiating negative emotion; creating thinking space; finding positive emotion, and the emergence of positive activities and agentic functioning. The embodied experience of recovery overlapped with the existentials of lived time, lived, space and lived relations. Trauma was noticed to have a pervasive effect over time; time was experienced as waiting, but also as a need to persevere. There was a move towards taking ownership of time where new beginnings could be made. Space was experienced as solitary and threatening during the violence, and continuing after the abuse had ceased. Over time, participants were able to enjoy and create a positive space which contributed to positive emotion. There were perspectives on historical rejecting relationships, including overt rejection, perceived rejection, and absence of relationships, and the negative impact this had on the women’s identity. The benefit of supportive and enabling relationships was acknowledged by all participants. The research relationship was experienced positively by all the participants, with two women noting it was their first experience of an enabling relationship. Four women acknowledged a positive change in their sense of identity over time. Recovery was conceptualised as involving multiple areas, including: a spiritual relationship; facing and accepting the past, and creating a sense of meaning; knowing joy and happiness; engaging in positive friendships, as well as intimate and sexual relations; engaging in meaningful activities; having clear boundaries; being able to manage emotion; feeling safe; and being independent. Participants unanimously found the research relationship helpful, with an emphasis placed on the researcher being genuine and having depth of understanding, listening, and placing a value on the participant, being caring and taking time, and holding and accepting everything brought to the encounter. It is suggested that the importance of the spiritual, as well as the nature of the therapeutic relationship, should be given high consideration when engaging with women with similar presentations. This may have clinical significance when considering service design for women who have experienced chronic violence from childhood into adulthood