EMMA STARKEY

 

I needed a space outside the university and its institutional gatekeeping. When I experienced obstruction - because I chose not to “absorb” theatre or photography into my practice for legitimate epistemic reasons - I was met with hostility. My refusal to adopt these forms was treated as a deficit rather than a methodological position and epistemic potential. During this time, I turned to blogging as a place to share and develop my research. I was inspired by Sara Ahmed’s feministkilljoys blog: like art, it is a space not subject to institutional amendments or curricular policing. Blogging became a site of resistance for me, a place where my research could move, think, and grow without being redirected or disciplined into narrow PhD formats and supervisory preferences, even though it offered so much more: a decolonial approach to dismantling aesthetics and perception. I think it is important to see yourself in the world, especially when epistemic erasure is taking place. It can be a deeply damaging experience, and in moments of friction like this, I genuinely believe that blogging can be grounding. It offers a way to assert presence when institutions attempt to overwrite, appropriate without credit,  silence, or redirect your practice.