Sharing the Lived Experiences of Women in Academia - by Remembering, Reclaiming and Retelling Stories of the Feminist Imaginaries

Oct 15, 2026

Feminist Imaginaries are psychological and social spaces that expand creative possibilities, enabling new ways of being, knowing, and knowledge creation. This paper uses an adecolonial and feminist approach to storytelling—remembering, reclaiming, and retelling the experiences of wandering women moving through psychosocial spaces of the Imaginary. It draws on feminist theory, creative writing methods, and autoethnography, illustrating how hidden inequalities in low-paid, part-time work and unpaid care are shaped by patriarchy. Poetry and an accompanying artwork, Remember, shout her name, tell her-story, demonstrate inquiry through creative writing, presented as an open-ended continuation of social and gender justice work.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introducing stories of the feminist imaginaries

Sharing the Lived Experiences of Women in Academia by Remembering, Reclaiming and Retelling Stories of the Feminist Imaginaries Bev Hayward Birkbeck College, The University of London , UK. Abstract Feminist Imaginaries are psychological and social spaces where creative possibilities are overflowing. They facilitate new ways of being, new ways of knowing and new ways of knowledge creation. This paper embraces adecolonial and feminist approach to storytelling, remembering, reclaiming and retelling; telling the stories of a band of wandering women, journeying to the psychosocial spaces of the Imaginary. Drawing upon a feminist theoretical tapestry, creative writing methods and autoethnographic approaches, the story is an example of the possibilities for Feminist Imaginaries in academic research. Many female students I have encountered naively believe they have social justice and equality but the inequalities are hidden in low paid, part-time work and unpaid care. To explore patriarchy’s deceptive nature, reference is made to the canons of Western art and literature as spaces from which to depart. It is from this space and time of departure that our journeys to the Imaginaries begin. Our lived experiences as artists as educators makes our activism all the more urgent to care for racialised, working class and disabled students. Those experiences are illustrated in poetry and visually in an artwork created to accompany this paper entitled, Remember, shout her name, tell her-story. Furthermore, creative writing is a form of the Imaginary and is used to tell this tale. I suggest, by borrowing from Laurel Richardson, creative writing is a method of inquiry to learn about ourselves and our research. By writing into the topic, rather than reading around and then writing, the imagination can wander and wonder freely. I include a small demonstration of how this process might be performed. In this way the story is open-ended, to be continued, as so too the fight for social and gender justice must continue. Accordingly, I invite you, the reader, to remember your stories, reclaim, imagine them, document and share them. Keywords: Creative writing; storytelling; poetry; art; lived experiences; marginalisation; feminist imaginaries; patriarchal discourses. Introducing stories of the feminist imaginaries The conceptualisations of the stories presented in this paper have been entwined in my subconscious for many years. The threads from stories of my past, with that of my ancestors, are stitched together with the present. The stories are meshed within the closure of the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Rochester campus, in July 2023. As I wander the empty corridors, a ghostly presence of patriarchy haunts the landscape at Fort Pitt (Tuck & Ree 2013, p. 640) . Fort Pitt is the name of the road upon which the campus is constructed, a large tower on a hill, the foundations of which are the remains of a Napoleonic fortress. It is necessary to record our affects from this departure‘as artists as educators’ and researchers (Clover, 2010) . And although it is important to remember, it is essential to search for what future (re)searching might become, as we imagine different ways of writing stories, telling stories, imagining in a feminist aesthetic, as talents are developed in creative practices. The telling of which embraces creative methods, poetry and embroidery in order to imagine‘a better world’ (Formenti and West, 2018), a just world of inclusion and diversity, a world of utopian imaginations (Piercy, 1976) . With this in mind, the middle part of the paper tells the story of a group of women pilgrims, the support workers at UCA, on a journey to feminist imaginaries. Those feminist imaginaries are ‘differently academic’ways of writing, searching and gathering stories. They encompass psychological and social spaces where creative possibilities are overflowing. They facilitate new ways of being, new ways of knowing and new ways of

FAQs

What are Feminist Imaginaries in this paper?

Feminist Imaginaries are psychological and social spaces where creative possibilities overflow, supporting new ways of being, knowing, and creating knowledge.

How does the author approach storytelling in the paper?

The paper uses an adecolonial and feminist approach to storytelling, focusing on remembering, reclaiming, and retelling through creative writing methods and autoethnographic approaches.

What inequality does the author highlight in relation to women students and social justice?

The author notes that many women students believe in social justice and equality, but inequalities are hidden in low-paid, part-time work and unpaid care.

Oct 15, 2026

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