Abstract

Certain texts do not simply sit on the page; they reverberate, disturb, and affect the researcher, demanding that we acknowledge our own vulnerability as central to the research encounter.

In this talk, Cassie Lowe (Senior Teaching Associate, Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning) will explore the concept of researcher vulnerability, extending its applications in social sciences to the realms of textual analysis. Considering the affective and disturbing potential stocked in non-fiction texts and, in particular, autobiographical accounts of traumatic experience, Dr Lowe will explore the challenges and opportunities encountered in a state of vulnerability: its implications for researcher objectivity, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, the generative role of disturbance in the arts and its role in pedagogy.

Dr Lowe’s talk will be followed by open discussion.

This event is part of the Affective Encounters research network