Conference Agenda

In this presentation, Alexandra––a mixed-Xicana MFT and Expressive Arts Therapies Trainee––uses autohistoria-teoría––an embodied method of inquiry bridging personal experiences with broader social and political landscapes––and testimonio––a healing-centered expressive arts modality––to propose an offering: Mujerista Narrative Therapy as a framework for decolonization, liberation, and healing. Through stories of becoming self-as-therapist and vignettes of nepantla moments in practice, she illuminates the acts of creative resistance that emerge through the transformative process of telling and witnessing both individual and collective histories of trauma and resilience in the time and space of the therapeutic-relationship. Alexandra draws upon knowledge, wisdoms, and practices of women of color feminisms, psycho-spiritualities, and healing-arts traditions, along with narrative, critical-liberation, and expressive arts approaches to psychotherapy to build upon pre-existing practices that dissolve epistemological boundaries and empower both clients and therapists who navigate life at the intersections of diverse worlds.

This paper invites you into the world of pediatric palliative care as experienced by children and their families, guided by the family's own logic of time – a temporality shaped by uncertainty, presence, and the proximity of death. From the positions of (health)care professionals and researchers, I explore how ethics in this field are never fixed or fully articulated, rather emergent, relational, and deeply situated within communities of care.

Pediatric palliative care is a field of sensitivity, where institutional ethical frameworks often fall short of capturing the lived complexities of families navigating life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses. I propose a temporal ethics – one that follows the rhythms of care, loss, and hope as they entangle, yet unfold in real time. With Kofoed & Staunæs’ concept of hesitancy as ethics interpreted as a free, oscillatory movement across, beyond, and within disciplines, this approach challenges dominant paradigms as procedural ethics.

Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, including pragmatism, feminist approaches to care ethics (Tronto, Gilligan, Noddings), and liminality theory (Stenner), I reflect on how research itself becomes a caring practice. Ethics is more than abstract rules – it is about affirmative meaning-making processes shaped by affective encounters and cross-cultural understandings. In this abducted temporality, where time for care and reflection is displaced by institutional demands, we must consider how to perform ethically within.

What does it mean to conduct ethically sound research in a space where hope and loss coexist – and how might a temporal ethic help us listen, hesitate, and respond in a world of institutional care, where no one seems to listen, hesitate, or respond (in time) with care?

Based on the stages of behavior change, support for the emotional transition that takes place between shifts in cognition and action requires the time and space needed to develop meaningful and intrinsic personal commitments. This space is rarely granted in medical settings, yet is required for systematic behavioral change. An overlooked stage of change within the model is when a person prepares to make the change. To achieve preparedness, the process of self-reevaluation allows a person to reckon with the dissonance that arises from learning the need for change and assists in identifying organic desires that shape the duty to act. Interventions in medical settings that cultivate an authentic will to resist racism among physicians are found to have both artistic and narrative components; yet this is underutilized by health psychologists in the medical field. This flash presentation will describe a novel therapeutic art intervention, a curated art space for learning and dissemination, for physicians who have lost their way on their journey to caring for all people. Recognizing the self and the systems that construct a reality of disparate care can assist in the adoption of anti-racist behaviors for health care providers.

Many rural areas in Germany are facing rising rental vacancy rates, population ageing, and economic uncertainties. These developments weaken social cohesion and democratic resilience, which result in growing support of right-wing populist parties such as ‚Alternative for Germany (AfD)‘. These dynamics, an example of ‚dark times‘ in which the infrastructures of democracy (freedom of speech, civil engagement and so on) have become fragile, call for an immediate act of reimagining collectivism and community mobilization.

One example and response to these challenges can be observed in the small town Kalbe (Milde), in Saxony-Anhalt, a state in the former East Germany. In 2013 Citizens and artists jointly developed the concept of a ‚Künstlerstadt‘ (artists' town) to revitalize the region through artistic participative interventions. Based on the work of artist Joseph Beuys from the 1960s, they refer to the narrative of ‚Social Sculpture’, in which creative practice becomes a vehicle for self-efficacy, community resilience and sustainable change (Köbele 2017). In this sense the ‚Künstlerstadt‘ becomes a promising case to examine the nexus between art, narratives, and transformation.

My proposed work-in-progress-presentation aims to develop a theoretical understanding of the creative practice applying the Grounded Theory Methodology on interviews and documents related to the ‚Künstlerstadt‘. Engaging with the works of John Dewey and Claire Bishop, I discuss how Kalbe’s creative practice differs from other (urban-related) concepts of community-based art and give insights into the role of aesthetic experience reimagining the infrastructures of democracy such as civic engagement, community mobilisation, and political decision-making in rural contexts.

References

Bishop, Claire (2012): Artificial Hells. Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. New York: Verso.

Dewey, J. (1934). Art as Experience. New York: Capricorn Books.

Köbele, C. (2017). Künstlerstadt Kalbe. Eine Stadt erfindet sich neu. In: Schneider, W., Kegler, B. & Koß, D. (eds.) Vital Village. Development of Rural Areas as a Challenge for Cultural Policy. Bielefeld: Transcript, pp. 111-116.

Ruppel, P.S., Mey, G. (2015). Grounded Theory Methodology—Narrativity Revisited. In: Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 49, pp. 174–186.

The psych-disciplines present themselves as universal, yet their knowledge production and practices are predominantly shaped by urban contexts. Rural populations rarely appear as research subjects or service recipients, except in moments of crisis. This urban bias frames rural communities as outliers, reinforcing their marginalization. This presentation explores how systemic and cultural biases within the psych-disciplines contribute to this exclusion and its profound effects, while considering pathways to better integrate rural realities into the core concerns of these disciplines.