“When I used words to narrate my experience of sleeplessness, something was missing. They failed to adequately articulate how I have come to accept sleeplessness as part of my being-in-the-world. I had trouble using words to narrate an experience that felt so visceral, embodied. The words in my narrative felt disembodied, sanitized. I sought something tactile, soft. A tangible representation of what it feels like when I embrace the darkness rather than fight against it, to be wrapped in the night, warm, comforted.”
Kristie Serota, PhD candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and CQ student, recently published a new article in Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal titled, “Quilting Resistance to the Sleep Industrial Complex: A Narrative Account of Sleeplessness”. Adapted from a final assignment submitted to CQ’s Narrative Methods in Health Research course taught by Dr. Michael Atkinson at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, the article explores the use of quilting as an arts-based method of storying her experience of resisting the sleep industrial complex and radically embracing sleeplessness. This project was also presented virtually as a short film at the International Society for Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP) Conference in August 2021.
Kristie’s doctoral research utilizes a poststructural narrative inquiry approach to explore the stories of bereaved loved ones following medical assistance in dying (MAiD). She is interested in understanding how societal discourses about MAiD, family disagreement about the MAiD decision, and experiences of stigma impact MAiD bereavement. Her research interests include critical qualitative methods, creative analytic practices, and feminist bioethics. She has completed several CQ courses and recently earned CQ’s Advanced Training in Qualitative Health Research Methodology Certificate.
Read the full article here.
