Pieces of me, letters from us: collage-making as embodied reflection in autoethnography

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using letter-writing as a research conversation, this paper discusses collage as a reflexive feminist method useful in qualitative fieldwork, particularly autoethnography. The paper is primarily presented through letters written between friends – the two authors of this paper – with an interest in collage as an art practice. The letters discuss the value of making collages in Samantha’s research process, aiding her generative reflection on the emotionally difficult situations she encountered during an ethnographic project. We contribute to literature on collage as research method by foregrounding the embodied character of physically making collages as a process, showing how the body knows more than we think in our research encounters. We conclude by calling for what Moira Ferguson calls a ‘polemics of the heart’ through letter-writing and collage as feminist practice that might soften the patriarchal structures of the academy.