Living inquiry in higher education: Nomadic interbeing


MadridM_living inquiry_nomadic interbeing_ECQI2018_inc c sheet.pdf

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This paper provides insights about the problems of finding oneself at home in the neoliberalized international Higher Education sector through a visual autobiographical narrative. Within an increasingly mobile sector, I reflect on my experience as international lecturer in the UK to generate a dialogue between text and image though the sequential art of comic. I acknowledge the problematic aspects of a displaced migrant subjectivity. The story proposes meditation as the mental training to find a stable home in oneself instead of making oneself feel at home depending on uncertain changing circumstances. With a transdisciplinary approach, this proposal takes theoretical elements from political and social studies, Art Education, postfeminist theories and Buddhist philosophy to merge them in a creative narrative. To do so, I apply aspects of the arts-based educational research methodology of a/r/tography and living inquiry. The paper takes the invitation of a/r/tography to live between the coexistent and interdependent practices of the artist/ researcher/ teacher. A/r/tographers become involved in processes of inquiry that recognizes subjectivity, autobiography, reflection, meditation and story-telling as valid forms of constructing meaning through art making. I commit to the process of embracing both the personal, the professional and the spiritual, where the professional-personal are in a continuous process of becoming. The struggle to belong to the new place-culture might point to an awareness of the network of interdependent relationships that challenges the modern notion of the individual self. Therefore, relationality and Buddhist concept of interbeing can lead to the proposal of meditation as a methodology of inquiry. Following this approach, the comic narrative aspires to construct an emergent dialogic space with the reader that allows me to embrace my vulnerability, pain and discomfort of searching for one’s place in the world. There is a strong communicative potential in graphic narratives to engage with readers-viewers and generate a meaningful subjective connection. This connection has the potential to allow the singular-plural to emerge, with no intention to provide generalizable universal truths. The limitations of the study rely on the limited ability of the narrative to touch the reader-viewer. The success of the work depends on its ability to disrupt previous conceptions of “being at home”.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Divisions: Creative Arts
Depositing User: Hayley Dennis
Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2018 09:31
Last Modified: 25 Apr 2018 09:31

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