Studies in Symbolic Interaction

Today, I told them……that performative writing saved my academic life. Had I not stumbled onto performative writing, I simply wouldn’t have stayed in the academy. I would have left after my Master's degree and pursued chef school, instead. But, during the final weeks of the final class of my Master's program, Performance Methodologies, Ronald J. Pelias introduced us to performative writing. My entire world changed. “You mean, I can write with emotion? I can research that which really interests me and write up my findings, considerations, and conclusions in a manner that doesn’t die on the page?” I blinked wide-eyed. “You mean, I don’t have to pretend to be a social scientist when what I really want to be is a social researcher?” “You mean, I can use poetry, and dialogue, and metaphor to write up my research and I need not apologize for it?” Oh, my. How my life turned on a pin in that moment.Today, I told them……that I spent the next few years working on my scholar's craft. I wrote performatively and autoethnographically and grew engorged with passion and need for expressing scholarly inquiry in this particular way. I had been given permission by those established few in the field and by the countless others in the academy who wanted to write about lived experience, culture, and performance in a manner that engaged with the closeness and vulnerability that only compassion could allow.Today, I told them……that permission is a powerful thing. It allows one to play by the rules even if it means stretching them. It also allows one to play by a different set of rules. Of course, keep in mind that this often maddens rule-keepers.