I went up a mountain and came down a hill. Datawalking as a counter to disembodied research during a pandemic

Abstract

This presentation will share research findings derived from autoethnographic data derived from my PhD study which looks at the interaction between teaching, research and public engagement in STEM education. I will look at the use of embodied movement as part of an autoethnographic research method that was expedited by the COVID19 pandemic as a daily walk during lockdown was permitted within government guidelines for the purpose of exercise. This started out as a lonely walk up a steep drover’s road in one of the most remote parts of North-West Scotland. However, as this process became more embedded into my daily life, I realised that not only did it feed my wellbeing, but it also provided a fertile space to reflect on my research work. Datawalking (van Es and de Lange, 2020) is a pragmatic approach to gather sensory-immersive data, which Amoroso (2021) posits as a counter to epistemic injustice. I will share how this method enhanced my wellbeing as a solo researcher who was disembodied from the academic community as a distance PhD student during the COVID19 pandemic and countered feelings of self-doubt and isolation typically experienced by PhD students (Boncori and Smith, 2019).

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https://uws.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/1d55a372-9780-4053-9f92-91c9e72d0083