Abstract
In the Spring of 2021, just as the UK was emerging from a long winter lockdown, I ran a collaborative arts project inviting women academics with caring responsibilities from across the UK to join me to create a quilt that would document the challenges of writing research whist juggling family needs and work demands, during the Covid-19 lockdowns. In order that the quilt could be easily shared, and for maximum impact, I also designed an online interactive version, that would include voiceovers from each participant, accessed by clicking on their respective quilt panels. Underpinned by theories of autoethnography to entice change through the sharing of personal stories (Ellis 2004), the legacy of women and stitch (Parker 1984), and Craftivism (Greer 2014), which has established the power of stitch to emancipate women from gendered inequalities, this story quilt visualises and voices the challenges we faced with candid honesty. The aim of this project is to document the impact of COVID-19 on the working lives of women academics, to provide a bedrock for discussion, to protect and value women’s contributions to research, and to begin to address the inequalities faced.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Give and Take |
| Subtitle of host publication | Motherhood and Creative Practice |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |