Theatricalising Narrative Research on Women Casual Academics

‘Arts based research at its best: Provocative, political, potent! Through artful provocations Gail Crimmins skillfully engages narrative forms that are at once scholarly, playful, expressive and alternative as they offer important reconsiderations not only for women, but for all scholars pushing the boundaries of the academy.’—Rita Irwin, University of British Columbia, Canada
This book presents the research journey involved in sensitively unearthing and re-presenting the lived experience of women casual academics. The author weaves the as yet unvoiced stories of women casual academics with a reflective account of a narrative inquiry process. In doing so, she both critiques and offers an alternative to masculine and traditional academic discourse, and demonstrates the power of imagistic and theatrical communication. The book situates the felt human and post-human experience/s of narrative research alongside the philosophical and theoretical research practices encountered in an arts-informed narrative research project. Thus, the author establishes valuable frameworks for planning, undertaking and evaluating arts-informed narrative research; a growing and vibrant area of education research. This innovative work will be of interest to feminist researchers, teachers and supervisors, as well as students and scholars of women casual academics.
Gail Crimmins is Lecturer in Communication at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. An experienced actor and director, her research explores and illuminates the lived experiences of women. She employs participatory research methods and re-presents her work through theatre, film and written prose.