Flexibility

After submitting a 158-page draft of my prospectus to my advisors, I am down 30 pages as a result of comments and feedback. But all is not lost. I simply moved those pages to other Word documents to save for later. It doesn't mean that the information was not good. It's just not for right now.

And so, as I let go of a theoretical framework, I find myself gaining exposure to another methodology.

While attending the prospectus defense of another Ph.D. student on February 18th, the candidate shared that she was interested in using Daughtering (Evans-Winters, 2019) in her case study. It was the title of her prospectus, which included Black women composers, that made me curious enough to mark my calendar and attend her online defense. And it was her description of a methodology rooted in Black feminism that made me all the more curious.

Things that make you say hhhmmmm.....

So, when I read amongst the comments and feedback from my dissertation co-chair a week later and saw a suggestion to consider humanizing research...decolonizing qualitative inquiry, I started to thumb through my repertoire. After not being inspired by what I had, I remembered Daughtering, looked it up, gave it a thumb through and saw that it talked about decolonizing knowledge. It also had a chapter called "Decolonizing the Mind." Clearly this book was another connection to something that was of timely interest to me. And so, I downloaded a digital copy of the book from the library. I must say, George State University has some of the best resources.

Black Feminism in Qualitative Inquiry: A Mosaic for Writing Our Daughter's Body -Dr. Venus E. Evans-Winters

Whether it works out or not, time will tell. It is an experiment after all.

This life requires flexibility...like a good jam session.

​That tis all...carry on.