LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Vibert, Ann

Acadia University

Master of Education

Masters

Counselling

Education

This arts based, participatory action research (PAR) thesis is engaged in opening up space for queer creative expression and community-building beyond the restrictive bounds of heteronormativity. Guided by principles of queer theory, Rogerian humanistic psychology, and liberation psychology, my co-participants and I (all queer-identifying young adults between the ages of 21 and 27 living in Halifax, Nova Scotia) developed a collaboratively therapeutic group process, sharing our experiences and understandings of queer identity and community with one another through conversation and comics-making. Through the analysis of our artwork and our discussions, four themes emerged to describe what we each gain by attaching ourselves to the ambiguous identity label of queer: authenticity, self-determination, fluidity, and complexity. At the end of our group process, we created a zine which we offer as a window into our perspectives, in order to contribute to queer representation within counselling education and in the world beyond academia.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3530