Written by Dr. Hannah Fowlie, the first SOPR graduate
Hello, everyone, my name is Hannah Fowlie, and I just defended my thesis project, Grief Refracted: Digital Storytelling as Liberatory Praxis. In this project, I explored disenfranchised grief (Doka, 1989) with eight other storytellers, and made a story as well. Rather than a book-length dissertation, the stories were woven together in a film that incorporating interviews and poetic, visual, and sonic explorations of grief and loss, accompanied by a written reflection. I was interested in how the arts and social sciences can support each other with a “synchronicity [that can move] in both directions (Gallagher, 2008, p. 78). In the Social Practice and Transformational Change (SOPR) program, I found a home for my work. Coming to the end of my journey, it makes good sense to look back and reflect on my experience in the program. I am feeling a sense of loss that I will no longer be formally part of the SOPR community however, I will look for ways to stay involved and connected.
I was initially attracted to the SOPR program because for most of my professional life I’d been interested in transdisciplinary work, mainly in the areas of theatre, film, and social work and knew that the program offered a focus on unconventional cross-disciplinary scholarship and practice. I was also excited by the emphasis on a community of practice and community engaged scholarship. Before joining the SOPR program, I’d recently completed a second master’s degree in the Theatre Studies at UofG and had been fortunate to work as a digital storytelling facilitator with Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice for many years. My work with Re•Vision firmly cemented my love of storytelling. I experience stories as healing and powerful, able to make agentic change in the world. I knew I wanted to make stories about grief and loss for my dissertation project and weave them together into a feature length film. From the onset, I had helpful support from Dr. Rice and other professors in the program to realize this vision. I view the film as a container for the storytellers (including myself) to explore painful and difficult experiences. A powerful digital story, carefully envisioned and crafted can become a container for both storyteller and audience, offering an opportunity to visit the painful and beautiful terrain of grief and loss, and hopefully find solace in their time spent there.
During my PhD Defense one the examiners asked about my experience in the program and as I formulated an answer, I was flooded with a sense of gratitude and appreciation. Just before the Defense, I had received a Padlet from the SOPR students full of warm wishes and congratulatory notes. This generous gift is emblematic of my experience in the program. Together, the faculty and students create a community of practice that is warm, supportive, challenging, rigorous, and inspiring. From the beginning, I had to work hard, the classwork was all-encompassing, and at times, I struggled to balance all that I wanted to do with my need for rest and other responsibilities. The professors I worked with and learned from understood the complexities and rigor of arts-based work and welcomed the assignments that I explored through poetry and film. My advisory committee, comprised of Dr. Carla Rice, Dr. Elisabeth Jackson, and Dr. Rebecca Caines (external from York University) met me where I was at in this process, shared their insights, resources, and deep knowledge. My dissertation project relied on the work of Dr. Rice and Dr.Ingrid Mündel (the Managing Director of Re•Vision, who also actively supports students in the SOPR program), to explore an application of the storytelling methodology and methods they have developed over time.
I began the SOPR program in 2019 and was fortunate to meet with the faculty in-person, however we quickly went into lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a very scary and challenging time for me (as I’m sure it was for everyone). After a quick pivot to online learning, I felt relieved and comforted to meet with fellow students and professors and stay involved in the program virtually. In my second year in the SOPR program, I was a student of Dr. Mavis Morton’s in the SOPR*6100 Research and Social Practice course. With Dr. Morton’s assistance each student designed and implemented a critical, community-engaged project. I decided to create a short documentary about an art therapy program at a Hospice in Guelph. All the interviews had to be done virtually, and Dr. Morton supported me at every step. I was also supported by Lindsey Thompson, CESI’s Community Engaged Learning Manager and a fellow student in the SOPR program. Both Lindsey and Dr. Morton met with me numerous times, responding quickly whenever I reached out with an urgent question or concern. As I was preparing for my Qualifying Exam (QE), I turned once again to Dr. Morton, who was no longer my professor; however, I knew she would be there for me to assist with an appropriate framework for my proposal and presentation. As an examiner, she was present at my QE helping to push my work further. I also turned to her for help writing my dissertation proposal and returned to request that she be the external examiner (with Dr. Amber Dean from McMaster University) at my Defense.
I was also fortunate to be a CESI scholar, receiving funding to continue my studies and a generous invitation to explore storytelling work through a partnership between the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) and Re•Vision. I was invited to co-facilitate a storytelling workshop entitled Visions for A Just, Food Future on Campus: BIPOC Students’ Stories of Food held online February 12 to March 5, 2022. During this time, I met with Dr. Jackson to discuss this project and other work I wanted to explore as a CESI scholar. From Dr. Jackson I learned about arts-based community making and all that entailed. These conversations, along with fruitful meetings with Dr. Rice led to the formation of my dissertation project.
I will hold my time in the SOPR program close to my heart as one of the most invigorating, challenging, and pleasurable academic experiences I’ve had in my long-life as a student. I valued the program’s openness to an arts-based exploration of the topics I needed to explore. Our work together, in class or as part of a research project, was rooted in an urgent need to attend to suffering and injustice and be a part of transformational change we wanted to see in the world. I will continue to follow the faculty and my fellow students as I am inspired by their commitment to social change and their beautiful and courageous work.