Contribution short abstract:

Women’s work has largely gone unseen in the historic record. This paper makes explicit the critical theories and practices, including arts-based approaches, that allow the author to understand and reveal the lived experiences of historic women and what lessons they may have for us today.

Contribution long abstract:

Unwriting and feminist theory are at the heart of my research; my work is impossible without them. My feminist lens requires autoethnographic engagement, ensuring that I ground myself in context, making my self-location/positionality explicit. Part of that positionality includes being a disabled academic who refuses to omit that identity from the discussion and who also refuses to be siloed into the realm of disability studies. My positionality, along with the nature of my work, is often disrupting to the inherent structure of the academy.

Broadly, I research meaning-making and personal sanctuary, especially in times of precarity. More specifically, my work weaves methodological and conceptual threads from the humanities (e.g folklore, social history, experimental archeology) with those from the social sciences (e.g. social work, sociology, psychology), engaging with the history of North Atlantic women, often through their material culture. I seek to reveal, and honour, women’s essential labour, which is too often disregarded. Where modern ideas aid me in understanding their perspectives and realities; the wisdom gleaned from their experiences can also assist us when faced with precarity today.

To that end, in this paper I shall present autoethnographic reflections from my research, sharing the critical theories and concepts, as well as the art-based unwriting practices, that underscore this work. Included will be some of the wisdom I have extrapolated from those I have studied and how that wisdom has something to offer everyone, especially in times of precarity.