Lafollette (2019)

Author

Lafollette, K.

Year

2019

Title

The queer art of writing: (re)Imagining scholarship and pedagogy through transgenre composing

University

Bowling State University

Discipline (uncoded)

Rhetoric and Writing Studies

Macrostructure

Traditional-Simple

Proposed Area of Unconventionality
(Tardy, 2016)

Modality, Practice

Description and other notes

Draws on and incorporates arts-based methods (collages), which is somewhat unusual for disciplinary context. Follows a traditional simple (IMRD) format, but presents a synthesis of results, consisting of photographs and words. Arts-based components enact key arguments of and purposes for the project.

(Proposed) Degree of separation or connection between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Connected. Atypical or unconventional components are positioned as inextricable from the written or conventional components.

(Proposed) Type of relationship construed between atypical or unconventional component(s) and conventional or written component(s)

Incorporated. For the most part, the atypical components and conventional components are seen to influence each other, but also maintain a degree of separateness.

Notes/Reasoning

Collages are inspired by what LaFollette is reading (e.g., the literature, the data). My impression is that the arts-based components stand on their own, except for in the coda which relegates the textual to the peripheral (and even then, the writtten component only exists as a concession to her commitee). I wonder if this slight separation is maintainted because the author wants to elevate the artwork that appears in her dissertation, almost as if in response to the skepticism she experienced: “The initial skepticism about my thesis project and the need for a context essay led me to question whether creative work was valued on the same level as traditional scholarly work, especially work that incorporated art (see fig. 1). Was my passion for art and writing always going to be unrecognized in academia?” (p. 2). Here, Figure 2 is gestured to, but it isn’t unpacked in the wrting that follows. Instead, the collages–each claiming a full dissertation page–could be viewed and read on their own, telling a related yet parallel story.

Discipline 2 (coded)

Rhetoric and Writing Studies

Discipline Grouping (coded)

SS

Source

Participant

None

None