Hauntings, Books, and “Others": A Journey Towards a Dissertation
Abstract
In a land where Spanish moss sways from oak trees, family Bibles and lineages are treasured and touted, and a twisted history remains ever-present, it is easy to imagine the nearness of ghosts, the company of haunts and haints. The conjured presence of specters has become both a source of revenue and entertainment. For most Southerners, ghosts are simply spectacles fashioned for the amusement of tourists.
Yet for a Georgia Southern University doctoral student, the arrival of apparitions in her qualitative research was far from expected. Learning to see their chains, hear their moans, and listen to their voices changed both the researcher and the research. Derrida suggests we “exorcise not in order to chase away the ghosts, but this time to grant them the right... to... a hospitable memory...out of concern for justice” (Avery, 2008, p. 58). Avery (2008) explains, “To be haunted in the name of a will to heal is to imagine what was lost which never even existed...If you let it, the ghost can lead you toward what has been missing, which is sometimes everything” (p. 58). This is a student's story of a haunted journey towards what was missing, which in our broken society today, turns out is everything.
Presentation Description
In a land where Spanish moss sways from oak trees, family Bibles and lineages are treasured and touted, and a twisted history remains ever-present, it is easy to imagine the nearness of ghosts, the company of haunts and haints. The conjured presence of specters has become both a source of revenue and entertainment. For most Southerners, ghosts are simply spectacles fashioned for the amusement of tourists. Yet for a Georgia Southern University doctoral student, the arrival of apparitions in her qualitative research was far from expected. Learning to see their chains, hear their moans, and listen to their voices changed both the researcher and the research. Derrida suggests we “exorcise not in order to chase away the ghosts, but this time to grant them the right... to... a hospitable memory...out of concern for justice” (Avery, 2008, p. 58). Avery (2008) explains, “To be haunted in the name of a will to heal is to imagine what was lost which never even existed...If you let it, the ghost can lead you toward what has been missing, which is sometimes everything” (p. 58). This is a student's story of a haunted journey towards what was missing, which in our broken society today, turns out is everything.
Location
Stream C: Curriculum Dialogues
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Whitcomb, Caroline G., "Hauntings, Books, and “Others": A Journey Towards a Dissertation" (2020). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 12.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2020/2020/12
Hauntings, Books, and “Others": A Journey Towards a Dissertation
Stream C: Curriculum Dialogues
In a land where Spanish moss sways from oak trees, family Bibles and lineages are treasured and touted, and a twisted history remains ever-present, it is easy to imagine the nearness of ghosts, the company of haunts and haints. The conjured presence of specters has become both a source of revenue and entertainment. For most Southerners, ghosts are simply spectacles fashioned for the amusement of tourists.
Yet for a Georgia Southern University doctoral student, the arrival of apparitions in her qualitative research was far from expected. Learning to see their chains, hear their moans, and listen to their voices changed both the researcher and the research. Derrida suggests we “exorcise not in order to chase away the ghosts, but this time to grant them the right... to... a hospitable memory...out of concern for justice” (Avery, 2008, p. 58). Avery (2008) explains, “To be haunted in the name of a will to heal is to imagine what was lost which never even existed...If you let it, the ghost can lead you toward what has been missing, which is sometimes everything” (p. 58). This is a student's story of a haunted journey towards what was missing, which in our broken society today, turns out is everything.
