Love as Inquiry : An Autoethnographic Story About My Engagement with Arts-Informed Research

Christina Flemming

doi:10.18432/ari29903

Love as Inquiry

An Autoethnographic Story About My Engagement with Arts-Informed Research

Authors

Christina Flemming St. Francis Xavier University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0900-1096

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29903

Keywords:

arts informed research, autoethnography, love, social justice, story slam

Abstract

Abstract: Four years ago, I was invited to take on the position of managing editor for Art/Research International (ARI). As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of ARI, I seek to honour the voices that have informed my own engagement with arts-informed research. As an artful researcher, who is comparatively new to the academy, I wish to centre the importance of looking back in order to look forward. In this article, I slow down and trace my own steps. I honour the guidance that I received having Dr. Ardra Cole as my doctoral supervisor. I detail my process conceptualizing and defending an autoethnographic dissertation containing a collection of stories about coming out as queer later in life. I offer one of the stories from my dissertation, and reflect on how my own work was informed by the question posed by Pauline Sameshima and Carl Leggo (2013), “what does love have to do with education?” (p. 90).

Author Biography

Christina Flemming, St. Francis Xavier University

Dr. Christina Flemming, ARI managing editor, is an assistant professor in adult education at St. Francis Xavier University. Her autoethnographic research is informed by the notion of love as inquiry, and based on her intersecting identities as a queer woman, educator, and mother to a non-verbal daughter on the autism spectrum. A lifelong writer, Christina facilitates graduate courses focused on critical pedagogies, arts-informed research and methodologies, and social and cultural contexts of learning. Christina regularly hosts community events and discussions that centre 2SLGBTQIA+ voices.

Chromosome Territories, 2022 (P. Sameshima). Artwork: wire and beads arranged in a circular manner against winter trees with blue sky in the background.

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Published

2025-10-26

How to Cite

Flemming, C. (2025). Love as Inquiry : An Autoethnographic Story About My Engagement with Arts-Informed Research . Art/Research/International:/A/Transdisciplinary/Journal, 9(2), 506–525. https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29903

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Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2025): Artful Futures: Reflections on the Evolution of the Arts in Research

Section

ARI Special Issue

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