Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Mental and Social Health

Nova Southeastern University

Arts-based research

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

“Chains Weigh Heavy”: Body Mapping Embodied Experiences Of Anxiety, Priya Vaughan Dr, Anna Tewson, Patricia Morgan Dr, Katherine M. Boydell Professor Feb 2023

“Chains Weigh Heavy”: Body Mapping Embodied Experiences Of Anxiety, Priya Vaughan Dr, Anna Tewson, Patricia Morgan Dr, Katherine M. Boydell Professor

The Qualitative Report

Anxiety has both cognitive and somatic dimensions as is ubiquitous at a population level. We report on an arts-based research workshop gathering data on embodied experiences of anxiety and non-anxiety. We developed an innovative short body mapping workshop to collect data and undertook thematic analysis to analyse textual and visual data. 35 body maps were produced. “Tightness,” “pain,” and “heaviness” were the most frequently expressed embodied sensations of anxiety. By contrast, when not feeling anxious, participants’ bodies primarily felt “energetic,” “ordered,” and “open.” Anxiety was most frequently felt in the stomach, head and heart. 35 Participants mostly used an abstracted, …


Self-Portraits For Social Change: Audience Response To A Photovoice Exhibition By Women With Disability, Diane Macdonald, Angela Dew, Karen Fisher Assoc Prof, Katherine Boydell Apr 2022

Self-Portraits For Social Change: Audience Response To A Photovoice Exhibition By Women With Disability, Diane Macdonald, Angela Dew, Karen Fisher Assoc Prof, Katherine Boydell

The Qualitative Report

Negative attitudes about and behaviours towards women with disability are harmful and exclusionary, contributing to poorer health, income, educational, and employment outcomes. Our study focused on what audiences learnt, felt, and did (what changed) after viewing self-portraits and stories by women with disability. We questioned whether a public exhibition of their artworks, created through photovoice methodology, could be an effective platform to provoke social change and increase inclusion for people with disability. We collected audience response to our exhibition to address a research gap and to provide an example for other photovoice researchers. We employed interpretive thematic analysis through a …