Assembling a ‘We’: Tracing the History of My Doctoral Research to the People Who Helped Shape It

In this paper I (first author) discuss my creative collaboration with two participants from the Life Story Project, a performative life story initiative which I facilitated at a day program for people with dementia in Ottawa. Drawing from journal and photographic records, I highlight what I learned from these two storytellers about communication. In particular, I reflect on the value of multi-modal communication methods and media, such as pictures, sounds and embodiment, as means to bypass word-finding difficulties, access embodied knowledge and negotiate meaning. I then discuss how these understandings helped shape the design of my current doctoral research, Linking Lives Through Care: A narrative inquiry into relational care understandings, which explores the potential for a more inclusive research environment in a long-term care setting. Tracing the history of my doctoral research to the people who helped shape it has been a way for me to keep their influence alive but, equally, to design a research protocol not only for, but, more importantly, with people with dementia.