Much of this semester’s class has reinforced one belief: research is personal. There is seldom, if ever, such a thing as truly objective research. Because of this, being able to understand the researcher’s biases about and positions in relationship to the subjects and communities they study is vital in order to trust in the work the researcher produces.
Furthermore, there is something valuable in personal revelation, both for the research community and the researcher herself, as we have seen through the work and words of Gesa Kirsch and Liz Rohan, who are actively gathering stories about the varying ways in which people in rhetoric and composition have come to their research agendas. Further, as both of these women were kind enough to share something of their own experiences with our class, we have seen the kind of personal enrichment that can come from an active, self-aware engagement in one’s research through a process of constantly interrogating one’s own relationship to the subject. This enrichment is not only personally fulfilling for the researcher, but it is something that can enrich the work and help it to grow in new directions.
Because of this, I believe it to be valuable for me to subject myself to the same kind of self-interrogation about my own research interest in the use of needlework as a feminist rhetorical practice. Why have I come to this project? Why is it important to me? What is my relationship to the communities involved within this project? What is the final purpose and activist agenda of this work? I attempt to answer—or at least thoroughly examine—all of these questions within this narrative, largely through looking at three different identities I have: third-wave feminist, crafter, and rhetorican.
By looking at the ways in which I have developed these identities through my life, I develop a list of conclusions about this work that I can use as I continue the project. I clearly reject any last urges to attempt to find a quasi-objective position, as I realize that I have to be clearly positioned within each of these three groups for my work to make sense to me, or for me to be able to speak to any of the communities of which I am a part. Furthermore, I clearly state the importance of this project as I see it, delineating its activist dimensions in a number of ways.
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