Speculative Methodologies & Emergent Literacies: Walking & Writing as Research-Creation by Sarah Elizabeth Truman A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Curriculum Studies & Teacher Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Book History & Print Culture, Massey College University of Toronto © Copyright by Sarah E. Truman, 2017 Speculative Methodologies & Emergent Literacies: Walking & Writing as Research-Creation Sarah Elizabeth Truman Doctor of Philosophy Curriculum Studies & Teacher Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Book History & Print Culture, Massey College University of Toronto 2017 Abstract My dissertation develops, extends, and experiments with theories of emergence to think ethico- politically about cultural productions, literacy practices, and pedagogies. Theoretically informed by process philosophy, new materialisms, and affect theories this dissertation focuses on three reading, writing, and walking research-creation events. The first research-creation event is a multi-participant marginalia project inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘eternal return’ (an ‘affirmation’ that emerged during a walk). The second research-creation event is an in-school project with high school English students that centers on emergent publics, literacies, and ethico-political matters of concern that arose through walking and writing. The third research-creation event is a long-distance walking- writing post-card project that queers the relationship between walking, chance encounters, and the politics of saying yes to whatever turns up. I employ a more-than-representational approach to writing as a further engagement with theories of emergence and their relevance to qualitative research methodologies in the field of education. & ii Acknowledgments Three significant people in my life died while I wrote this dissertation. My maternal grandmother, Anne Donnelly Brothers, my cat, Lonesome, and my best teacher and friend David H. Forsee. They supported my writing in the past. I miss them all. Thank you to my colleagues and professors at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and at Massey College for thinking-with me these past four years. Thank you to my fellow co-editors of Pedagogical Matters (Nathan Snaza, Debbie Sonu, and Zofia Zaliwska) for co-theorizing with me when we put the book together. Thank you also colleagues and friends affiliated with WalkingLab and Hamilton Perambulatory Unit – our itinerant walking and reading groups, bush salons, and various research events have all impacted my thinking and writing. Thank you to the many participants who were part of the three research-creation events in this dissertation including the 30+ people who engaged with Intratextual Entanglements, and the 18 students at Llyn High School. And a particular thank you to David Shannon who walked St. Cuthbert’s Way with me and the various more-than-human strangers we encountered en route. Thank you to the External Examiner Susan Searls Giroux, and the Internal Examiners Aparna Mishra Tarc and Kathy Bickmore, for all of your generous and provocative questions and comments. Thank you Rob Simon for your patient and insightful comments throughout this dissertation project and beyond. Thank you Peter Trifonas for your piercing and humourous propositions to always think-further with philosophy. Thank you Stephanie Springgay, the dearest and most intelligent supervisor ever! You demonstrate what feminist collaboration in academe can be and continually inspire my scholarship. I look forward to walking-thinking-writing with you in the future. & iii iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... v “And” ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Toward Theories of Emergence: A Literature Review .......................................................................... 4 What are the ‘New’ Materialisms? ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Emergent Bodying ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 More-than-human ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Intra-action ....................................................................................................................................................................... 18 If everything is constantly emerging, how do we account for ethics? ....................................................................................... 21 Stir the Virtual (Deleuze’s Difference, Actual & Virtual) .............................................................................................. 26 How do you think in terms of problems? Lure Feeling. Propose. ........................................................................................ 28 Affirm Chance (Nietzsche’s eternal return and difference) .................................................................................................. 30 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 33 Techniques for Emergent Methods ..................................................................................................... 33 Stir the Virtual ................................................................................................................................................................ 38 Slow (Problematize. Agitate) ............................................................................................................................................ 39 Research-Creation ............................................................................................................................................................. 40 Thinking-with rather than writing-up ................................................................................................................................ 42 Attending to representational issues ................................................................................................................................... 46 More-than-represent .......................................................................................................................................................... 48 On Research-Events ......................................................................................................................................................... 50 Overview of research-creation events .................................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................................... 57 Take Thought for a walk - Intratextual Entanglements ...................................................................... 57 Specifics of the research-creation ......................................................................................................................................... 60 Text ................................................................................................................................................................................. 62 Public Pedagogy? ............................................................................................................................................................... 64 The Materiality of Language ............................................................................................................................................. 67 v A Backgrounder on Textual Marginalia .......................................................................................................................... 69 Approaches to Group ‘Reading-Writing’ ........................................................................................................................... 72 Ethico-political tendings, provoke how? .............................................................................................................................. 76 Affirm Difference .............................................................................................................................................................. 79 Affirmation and Movement ..............................................................................................................................................