‘“Now I need a sanctuary, and you to stand beside me”: Songs and stories of inequity’ by Kitrina Douglas and David Carless.
Reflections from Harriet Marks, conference co-organiser and participant:
The keynote speakers were Kitrina Douglas and David Carless whose performance-presentation particularly stood out to me. Their session was evocative and diverged most from my preconceived ideas of what social research can be like. When considering research before attending conference talks for the first time, I would have thought about written reports that document research findings. However, Kitrina and David’s plenary session showed that there are much more innovative ways to convey messages about social issues. I had never thought of storytelling or song writing as ways that could form part of a research project before and this session showed me how innovative methods can be really thought-provoking and effective. One quote from David was about people entrusting him and Kitrina with their stories, usually on the understanding that it may help others: ‘someone, somewhere, sometime’. The emphasis on making a difference and amplifying the stories of sufferers was something I found particularly inspiring. It was great that every attendee got to hear this section as I think it brought the whole event together nicely and highlighted the need for research to continue to gather insights into social issues in order to help people.
One element I particularly liked about this session was the focus on conveying the lived experiences of a respondent with the pseudonym ‘Gemma’. To hear of Gemma’s experiences made the message feel personal as I could imagine what the woman behind the pseudonym was going through. Kitrina’s storytelling was powerful as quotes from Gemma tended not to be preceded by ‘she said’ or ‘she felt’ but were stated as if Gemma herself was speaking to us. When she said ‘what if I die of COVID? My kids only have me’, I was very moved. This was effective in helping me to try and understand how it must feel to suffer with mental ill-health in a way that causes agoraphobia. It clearly demonstrated how social issues impact on people’s lives, again highlighting the importance of social research. The way in which Kitrina spoke at a slowed-down rhythm made me feel like she was reading a poem and made the message really engaging and powerful. I loved when she said that in her and David’s work, a driver for innovation is not the need to do something new or different but rather a desire to represent participants’ lives and experiences more powerfully.
One part of the plenary that I particularly enjoyed was the references to Bruce Springsteen! Although I love Sociology, I think that any academic discipline can feel inaccessible at times, as terminology used in academic journals and texts can be written in a way that is filled with jargon. When David made reference to a couple of quotations from Springsteen, it helped the session feel accessible and made the talk feel personal. One of these quotes was about learning more from a three-minute record than from school and David’s song definitely showed me how much we can learn from music. The song combined some of ‘Gemma’s’ experiences with thoughts and feelings from David and was titled ‘While my Children Dance’. It enabled me to understand important social issues in a way that drew attention to the impacts they may have on a person. Before the conference, I thought of conferences as being full of formal speeches that only very established academics understand. However, I thought it was amazing that the song made the research message so accessible to all.
“The emphasis on making a difference and amplifying the stories of sufferers was something I found particularly inspiring”
“I thought it was amazing that the song made the research message so accessible to all”