Browsing by Subject "Storytelling"

Cyclical Navigations: In the In Between is a creative process-based interdisciplinaryinstallation and paper that conceptualizes storytelling as a practice of embodied memory recollection. This work focuses on viewing storytelling and land acknowledgement as necessary tools in the navigation of cyclical temporalities in the present, or what I have termed the In Between. Through the employment of ethnography, dance-based somatic practice Lettering, and oral interviews, I posit that first-person narratives work to combat the violence(s) of erasure and racial ventriloquism that occur when archiving Black life. By using a methodology of care, this project considers what is possible if Black history and thus, Black quotidian stories are treated and shared with care.

This dissertation examines everyday life and storytelling in Peru's Huaylas Valley: a transnational mining hub beneath melting Andean glaciers. During one year of ethnographic fieldwork, I listened to citydwellers and villagers narrate personal stories, gory rumors, and mythic tales: of a ruined Inca city that glows at night, a disappearing water devil, wild lakes turning tame, a Christ whose powers are shrinking. Rather than evincing ontological alterity, Huaylas stories reveal distinctive capitalist imaginaries and their ancient genealogies. They convey a popular sense of marginalization at a time of rapid, mineral-fueled growth, along with high hopes for a wealthy, developed future. And, their motifs and imagery attest to centuries of intercultural exchange, showing how capitalism took root in the Andes through indigenous cosmology, even as it developed through American colonization. Today, storytellers imagine and relate to their once-animate landscape as a banal means of accumulation, enlivening it through modern dreams that herald this future by banishing the superfluous—fantastic beings, and even themselves— from their Valley. If only by aspiration, then, storytellers in the Huaylas Valley form part of a planetary capitalist culture that accelerates global warming, raises mass living standards, and circulates fantasies of material redemption. While climate change is typically construed as a problem for scientists and consumers to solve, this dissertation shows instead that global warming is a historical, cultural problem about the ends that more and more of humankind imagines, and strives to achieve.

Survivorship of adolescents and young adults with cancer (AYAC) has for the last decade been a critical issue in pediatric oncology. Some studies have emphasized the importance of a positive health approach for AYAC, enhancing strengths and resources necessary to successfully address life-long challenges during and after treatment. Human flourishing (HF), a life-long process to achieve “uniqueness, dignity, diversity, freedom, happiness, and holistic well-being of the individual” (National League for Nursing, 2014, p. 1), can work as an excellent target for health care that addresses the unique needs of AYAC. However, the concept of HF has received scant attention in the field of pediatric and young adult oncology and has been applied in a very limited fashion to AYAC. Thus, this dissertation explored the concept of HF in AYAC and developed a concept-based targeted intervention using a Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) Framework.

To gain a better understanding of the concept of HF in the context of AYAC, we conducted three different studies: (1) a concept analysis of HF in AYAC; (2) an exploratory study of HF in AYAC from pediatric oncology professionals’ perspectives (N=17), and; (3) a prototype intervention development and single case feasibility and acceptability study. We found critical attributes of HF in AYAC and developed a preliminary conceptual model. Based on the findings of two previous studies, a literature review, and individual/focus group discussions with experts, we developed a dyadic storytelling intervention between a nurse and a patient. To test this intervention’s feasibility and acceptability, we applied the prototype intervention to a single dyad of an adolescent with cancer and a pediatric oncology nurse. Data suggest that the intervention is feasible and acceptable. We will revise the program and conduct a large-scale pilot study as a next step.

The findings from this dissertation study explore and contribute to the knowledge generation surrounding the critical attributes of HF in AYAC and develop a preliminary conceptual framework. Additionally, this study represents a very early step in the translation of knowledge on HF to nursing care for AYAC. As we continue to develop the intervention in the future, we will explore diverse participants’ experiences and perspectives of flourishing while undergoing cancer treatment.