The Center for Virtual/Material Studies, [@virtualmaterialpsu]. (2024, January 31) Cropped photograph of the completed Felt* Community Blanket project. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/C2xNPKauTbS/?img_index=1
Pedagogy of Fiber: An Arts-based Autoethnographic Study into the Queer Praxis of Textile Education
The Pennsylvania State University: Dual-title Master of Science thesis in Art Education and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
In this autoethnographic study, I investigated the entangled positionality of my identity as a queer person to my tactile and emotional relationship with fibrous materials and processes, my role in the classroom as an arts educator, and my studio practice as a textile artist and designer. This study aims to generate an operational definition of the coined, Pedagogy of Fiber through my teaching, studio practice, and a literature review of how other educators have enacted fibercraft pedagogies. Through sharing personal narratives where my queer identity was informed by engaging with materials and through fibercraft processes, I argue for the importance of enacting a Pedagogy of Fiber in educational environments to support queer community-building and implement queer/feminist practices in textile education toward the emerging actualization of self.