Dissertation Studies: Counternarratives, Digital Ethnography, Storywork, and Performative Memoir

n this emergent scholar session, a group of researchers present their dissertation studies on a wide array of topics such as the misrepresentation of Asian Americans in media; counterstories of the intersection of disability & technology and its impact on identities of adults with dis/abilities; teaching with passion: engaging in Indigenous thought and storywork; and performing identities of the auditory-verbal deaf students in the classrooms: a teacher’s performative memoir. These researchers explore creative ways to push methodological boundaries, perform dissertation writing, and liberate academic writing by diving into life and writing into contradiction in schools, families, and communities in the U. S. South. Through visual, graphic, multimedia, and performative presentations, the presenters will illustrate diverse forms of dissertation research and representations such as a multiperspectival cultural studies, counternarratives, digital ethnography, Indigenous storywork, performative memoir, dance, fiction, painting, poetry, spoken word, and play. Theoretical traditions, forms of inquiry, and modes of expression are particularly explored.Innovative writings engendered from the inquiries are demonstrated. Potentials, challenges, and future directions of these inquiries and representations are also discussed