Being and Doing CMW Together as an Embodiment
In this session, we will explore together the power of collective memory work (CMW) to create and sustain relationships that are rooted in a commitment to criticality in our daily lives and our work. We (as a collective we call ACE) have been engaged in CMW together for more than a decade, beginning in our doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota. Now faculty members at different institutions, we have continued to meet virtually, and in-person when possible, on a regular basis. We contend that much of our time together is spent in what we conceptualize as an expansive and embodied CMW process. This practice arose organically over the years, first studying and applying the theory and methodology of CMW as inquiry, and then as we transitioned into collective critical analysis of our experiences as faculty via our monthly sessions. Given that this practice has developed somewhat subconsciously, we assert that it can be characterized as an embodied CMW practice.
This CMW practice we have maintained for over a decade originated in an independent study on feminism, teaching, and research that we formed in critique of our department ‘s lack of any official coursework on feminist theory. Frigga Haug and Frauenformen’s (1987) work developing and practicing CMW (Female Sexualization) was one of the texts with which we engaged early on in our study, which resulted in CMW becoming the methodological structure for our work together in the independent study. We were drawn to CMW for its emphasis on critical theory and its centering of collectivity; these are ontological and epistemological stances that have always been central to our work.
In early iterations of our work, we developed prompts, wrote memories in third person, and utilized collective textual analysis protocols as Frigga Haug and her collective outlined in their “How To” document (1999). These practices were fruitful and illuminating. For the last several years, however, CMW–or rather, its essence–has become embedded and embodied in our monthly collective sessions, whereby our critical analysis of memory has enabled care and compassion, relationship-building, and theory-making (and vice versa) between the three of us. In these sessions, we have explored tensions in teaching (especially given the increasingly politically-charged nature of education), professional growth and leadership, navigation of neocolonial and capitalist systems (higher education in the U.S.), and building and sustaining lives as white women women academics while living through racial uprisings, political upheaval, climate change, and a global pandemic.
This incredibly complex, emotional, and troubling work has required, as a collective and as individuals, an engagement with embodiment and somatic practices in our inquiry. In this session, we hope to further our exploration of embodiment and the body as a site for holding memories by sharing some ways that embodiment and somatic practices are linked to memory and CMW. We draw on the notion of embodied cognition, which examines the ways our bodies are sites of learning, as well as somatic practices, such as grounding, orienting, and resourcing. Practicing CMW has allowed us to sustain our commitment to maintaining a critical perspective; a perspective that arises from our own lived experiences as well as from a sense of deep, critical care for each other, our students, and our commitments and values.
Questions for discussion:
In what ways can the notion of embodied cognition and somatic practices enhance the practice of CMW? What embodied possibilities are opened up by a critical perspective on lived experiences? How does a sustained commitment to this work come to live in our bodies? How do CMW processes and practices transition over time to embody the demands of our work in this new and transforming landscape of education?
Activity for the session:
We will begin by offering a grounding activity to help center our bodies as knowers, thinkers, and feelers. Next, we will share some of our own work as a CMW collective that has been sustained for over a decade, including how our commitment to CMW processes have become an embodied practice for us and have built and sustained our friendships, scholarship, and pedagogies. Next, we will ask the group to entertain the discussion questions in small groups or pairs, transitioning to a whole group conversation. We will invite participants to share their own thoughts and experiences with CMW, as well as their responses to the discussion questions. We will conclude with further discussion and a brief wrap-up resourcing activity. This activity will support us in connecting with experiences of support, care, and wisdom in our work; coming into relationship with that knowledge as a felt sense; and sharing that experience with others in the group.
References:
Hamm, R. (2018). Collective Memory-Work–a Method Under the Radar?. Other Education, 7(2), 118-124.
Haug, F. (1987). Female sexualization: A collective work of memory. London: Verso.
Haug, F. (1999). Memory-work as a method of social science research: A detailed rendering ofmemory-work method.
Hemphill, P. (2024). What it takes to heal: How transforming ourselves can change the world.Random House.
Meiners, E. R. (2002). Disengaging from the legacy of Lady Bountiful in teacher education classrooms. Gender and Education, 14(1), 85-94.