Narratives of Hope and Grief in Higher Education

This collection weaves together the personal narratives of a group of diverse scholars in academia in order to reflect on the ways that grief and hope matter for those situated within higher education. Each chapter explores a unique aspect of grief and loss, from experiencing a personal tragedy such as the loss of a loved one, to national and international grief such as campus shootings and refugee camp experiences, to experiencing racism and microaggressions as a woman of color in academia, to the implications of religious differences severing personal ties as an individual navigates research and academic studies. Unlike most resources examining grief, this collection pushes beyond notions of sorrow as solely individual, and instead situates moments of loss and hurt as ones that matter politically, academically, professionally, and personally. The editors and their authors offer pathways forward to academics, researchers, teachers, pedagogues, and thinkers who grapple with grief in a variety of forms, transforming this book into a critical resource of hope to those in the field of education (and others) who may feel the effects of an otherwise solitary journey of grief, to create an awareness of solidarity and support that some may not realize exists within academic circles.

Auteur

Stephanie Anne Shelton is Assistant Professor of Qualitative Research with the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methods, and Counseling at the University of Alabama, USA.

Nicole Sieben is Assistant Professor of Secondary English Education and Coordinator for Graduate Programs in English Education at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, USA.

Contenu

1. From Grief Grew Hope, and This Book 2. A Qualitative Reckoning 3. Hard Grief for Hard Love: Writing through Doctoral Studies and the Loss of my Mother 4. Losing (and Finding) Myself through Grief 5. Things That Are Good: Tracing Entanglements of Hope 6. The Art of Bereavement: An Autoethnographic Reflection on Transformational Learning Following the Loss of a Spouse 7. All at Once: Writing Grief 8. The Refrains that Help Me Remember: An Autoethnography of Grief, Epistemological Crisis, and Discovering Hope through Theory 9. I Can't Complain 10. I Refuse to Be a Bystander 11. Misdiagnosing Trauma and Grief: I Am Not Angry; I Am Triggered and Grief Stricken 12. En las sombras: A letter to my friend about grief, desire, and haunting 13. "Yup, Just Him": Misconceptions and Our Table for Three 14. Reading, Loving, and Losing my Mother: A Collage of Partial Understanding 15. Love you to pIeCEs 16. Hope: The Spark of Perseverance To Survive in the Face of Adversity 17. The Importance of Narratives in Finding Hope in Grief