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This paper highlights the relationship between Modern Architecture in central European countries and vernacular architecture of Mediterranean islands, specifically in three locations: the island of Ibiza, Capri and the Aegean Islands, during the birth and development of Modern Architecture. In particular it studies some selected central European (German and Austrian) and Mediterranean architects (Italian, Spanish and Greek), who looked for a new formal language in order to find the key to the new habitational needs of that time. For that purpose, this work analyzes the personal experiences that those architects had, visiting the Islands, and the impressions that they got, knowing nearer the characteristics of this vernacular architecture. Our aim is to determine what role this vernacular architecture played in the development of these architects’ works and how it was assumed and assimilated by them during the time in which Modern Architecture was developed.

In this chapter, we discuss the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) or Stimulated Recall Interview (SRI) as a method and show its usage in investigating systemic couple therapy processes in two international research projects. IPR/SRI has been designed as a process-focused interview method for training and supervision, expanded into clinical, especially psychotherapy process research: patients and/or therapists watch video (segments) of the therapeutic situation and comment on their experiences during the session. The aim of the presented analysis is to study the mutual dynamic between the couple therapists’ references to their professional practices and to their personal experiences during the interview. To achieve this aim, we employed two methodological approaches: dialogical analysis to investigate the distinction between the therapist’s professional and personal selves, and the narrative storytelling approach in order to describe the therapist’s positioning in terms of his or her discursive identities being displayed in the IPR/SR interview. We discuss the results in three aspects, describing (1) the therapists’ discursive practices of presenting their professional and personal identities; (2) the shifting of their attention between the video episode from the session and displaying their mental state in relation to it; and (3) the thinking aloud phenomena as enhancing the insight into psychotherapeutic processes. We conclude with methodological reflections.

The world of optical illusions is a fascinating world full of illusions, idiosyncratic perspectives, dazzling colors, and misguided fantasies. Who sees what and when during the observation of ambiguous images, depends above all on individual previous expertise and personal experiences.

This article critically discusses the interfaces between audiovisual anthropology and cultural heritage practices and concepts through descriptions and analyses of professional and personal experiences during the registration of the Campina Grande Street Market in the state of Paraiba as a part of Brazilian cultural heritage. The recent expansion of audiovisual work in the processes of intangible heritage registration does not reverberate in self-reflexibility on the criteria that guide the technical quality of such productions. Among more conservative documentary proposals involving interviews with “experts on the subject” and more authorial experiences affected by ethnographic gazes and experimental aesthetic concerns, videos that address registered cultural assets reveal a lack or confusion of professional and amateur orientation in this field.

Simulations and games for learning require expert management drawing on specialist skills and knowledge. Dick Duke’s 1969 [1] invitation to a ‘conversation about simulation’, initiated a process that has generated 50 years of thoughtful analysis of the design and use of simulations. In the early stages, facilitation was not high on agendas for discussion or research. However, the role of the facilitator has been receiving more attention, as the importance of effective management of simulation events receives more recognition. Awareness of the complexity of human interactions, and the ways in which simulation can both replicate and unsettle them, is leading to more research and attention being paid to the role of the facilitator. Using a trajectory of personal experiences beginning in 1969, this paper uses an auto-ethnographic approach [2] to review our own development as facilitators of simulations and games, alongside an exploration of the broader, evolving understanding of the role, and the increasing complexity involved in ensuring facilitators contribute effectively to current learning contexts.

This chapter shows that forms of experience and memory are not mere effects but constitutive processes of histospheres. Accordingly, the first section explores the complex interrelationship between film, body, and memory. It argues that embodied memories make it possible to experience a film’s historical world as a physical reality, and add a bodily experiential dimension to the mise-en-histoire. Building on these considerations, the second section combines them with theories of media-generated memories: Histospheres draw not just on existing embodied memories and conceptions of history, but are actively involved in producing personal experiences with identity-forging potential. The third section examines the workings of reminiscence triggers, whereby filmic figurations link the film’s historical world to the spectator’s embodied memories and produce a kind of déjà vu effect.

In this chapter, we (two scholars of Color) critically reflect on our time teaching diversity required courses to predominantly white pre-service teachers at a predominately white institution (PWI). We frame our reflections using Critical Race Theory (CRT), which situates our experiences as data (i.e., experiential knowledge) from which to develop praxis that holds us, educators, accountable to CRT’s call for transformative, social justice education. More specifically, we describe how our professional endeavors teaching adult English language courses internationally and personal experiences as people from transnational families informed our experiences as teacher educators in local university spaces. These unique and informed perspectives significantly shaped the curriculum and pedagogy in ways that align with traditions of radical transformation and resistance.

In this reflective study, we critically examine the transnational perspectives we developed during our individual experiences in a TESOL teacher education program in the United States. Two of the authors were international teacher candidates and one was local faculty. We adopted principles of duoethnography and critical autoethnography in order to (re)construct our experiences participating in the program and what the resulting transnational relationships have meant for us long-term. We present our findings in personal narratives, each organized around three shared themes: (a) transnationalism and internationalism; (b) power relationships; and (c) post-program ownership of knowledge. In each narrative, we detail experiences of professional growth towards a broader view of the profession and our positioning within it. We also recognize that our personal experiences in the TESOL program took place within a wider context of evolving power structures within the field. We close with recommendations for similar TESOL programs in the US.

International medical graduates (IMGs) play a key role in the US healthcare system. They comprise a significant percentage of resident physicians training in the US graduate medical education system as well as a vast percentage of practicing attending physicians at many hospitals in many states and cities around the country. IMGs may face many different struggles, and in order to endure, one must reach a number of milestones along each step. We present this chapter with our personal experiences and have gathered information from our peers. We have divided this chapter into different sections highlighting the pathways IMGs yield during their carrier. These experiences will also provide help to ease the reader along one’s own path and to visualize the step-by-step groundwork through the eyes of others who have already experienced the route firsthand. This chapter is written with the most recent updates to better prepare international medical graduates and should be used as a tool in combination with other chapters and experiences found in this book.

Life as a PhD student is not like a walk in the park. It is expected that students will encounter problems along the way. Each student’s journey is personal and exclusive as it is dependent on a multitude of different factors. This chapter describes the various hurdles that a PhD student might encounter as well as the author’s personal experience. The aim of the chapter is to share other students’ and personal experiences so as to encourage students not to give up during tumultuous periods.

Much of the scholarship of the House Ballroom Scene focuses on the Balls, categories, genders, and Houses—with Mothers being at the forefront of leadership for the Ballscene culture. This chapter departs from that trend and moves to illuminate the roles that Fathers play in the Ballscene. Pulling from Paris is Burning, and through indigenous decolonial praxis, this essay in the form of a letter to a son weaves together personal experiences of this Black, Latinx, Indigenous LGBTQ+ sub-culture, in order to make sense of the meanings and responsibilities of Fatherhood. Tender considerations of what raises one’s masculinity, walking through Mexika ceremony, and evaluation of roles in a walking House builds this essay and story of the werk and call to Fatherhood a House brings.

This chapter deals with the functions of autobiographical memory, a topic which played a crucial role in Freudian human memory theories but has unfortunately only come to the forefront of psychologists’ attention in recent years. Drawing on theory and empirical research into this topic, the author sets out the main motives—biological, social and psychological—prompting people to recall the personal experiences and information making up their life story plots. These motives are grouped into four categories: preparing for everyday problems and opportunities (in the present and future); sharing one’s past with other people; reflecting about one’s identity and life story; forgetting personal experiences with the potential to threaten the self.

This chapter presents my personal experiences and challenges as an upcycler. From my experience and reflection, I realised two big challenges to overcome as an upcycler. One challenge is that customers do not appreciate the time, effort, and in some instances, money invested by the designer/maker in upcycling. Another challenge is access to input materials for upcycling as some material suppliers are reluctant to give away their waste materials. Despite the challenges, it has been an interesting journey I have had so far as an upcycler, exploring different waste materials and unlimited possibilities embedded in those materials. I wish other creative people could share this joy of giving a second life to waste materials. I hope to see the future in which more people appreciate what upcyclers do and bring to the world, and we, upcyclers, have a closer partnership with material suppliers and manufacturers to work together to reduce waste.

This brief epilogue offers a reflection on the legacy of British subversive propaganda during the Second World War from the point of view of the hypermediated and heavily propagandized twenty-first century. Many aspects of today’s dizzying information landscape were anticipated by the Political Warfare Executive. Certainly, readers will bring to this book their own personal experiences with “fake news” and subversive propaganda. Meanwhile, the cultural and intellectual legacy of PWE was interwoven with the post-war period in the politics of memory and the mythologisation of the fight against fascism.

My name is Lee Harvey Heath. I was born with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder. I was diagnosed at the age of 26. I founded FASD Devon & Cornwall consultancy, a growing organisation that I am going to be registering as a community interest company. We provide one-to-one consultations, advice, information, education, and raise awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, in the southwest. As well as doing public talks, we host support group and being the voice of those affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol around the UK. So far, I have met with local city councillors, local media, started one-to-one mentoring, helped individuals receive a diagnosis, educated adopters and foster carers all through my own personal experiences of living with FASD.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden increase of remote activities including work, learning and also scientific conferences. Almost a year of experience in remote work, remote meetings and remote conferences clearly showed that these events are markedly different from their traditional counterparts. The aim of this workshop is to analyse factors influencing the user experience of remote conferences, thereby creating a set of guidelines for their future organizers. Patterns may be identified from personal experiences shared by HCI researchers as participants or organizers of remote conferences. Methodologically, the methods of Design Thinking combined with the auto-ethnographic approach will be employed for the workshop. Participants will be able to find new insights into the process of the organization of remote conferences and transform such insights into an actionable set of guidelines for future remote conference organization.

Self-esteem is a concept developed from the personal experiences of a person in a society and refers to the assessment of a person about himself, so that it expresses an attitude of approval, or not, and indicates an extension in which a person believes to be capable, meaningful, dignified and successful in relation to his-her abilities, skills, social relationships and physical appearance, for example. Some studies indicate that technology has the potential to provide experiences that can alter the users’ psychological states, including their self-esteem. This work contributes to a systematic literature review, with the objective of investigating technological solutions designed to influence self-esteem. Through automatic and manual search, we identified 3,668 papers, and we selected seven of them in the specific final selection and analyzed them based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results obtained helped us to understand what types of technology are used to affect/impact self-esteem, how technology has been used and the strategies for supporting this purpose, and the aspects of self-esteem the technology influences. Our results also indicate research challenges within this issue.

The book sets out to uncover the causes of growing Islamist militancy in Bangladesh, by investigating the vast secondary literature, by collecting data from two leading newspapers as papers of record and finally by interviewing a range of experts and informed observers of radicalization in Bangladesh. The study finds that middle-class youths have been increasingly targeted by militant groups because of their lack of religious knowledge, their accessibility through social media, their vulnerability to unemployment, their sense of injustice and Muslim victimization, their personal grievances, their perception of moral degradation and their personal experiences of corruption. All these factors have led to a widening gap of disillusionment between expectations and reality. This disconnection renders a younger middle-class generation vulnerable to ideological radicalization. The purpose of this chapter is to construct a ‘pyramid root cause’ model for youth radicalization based on an exhaustive reading of the relevant literature and the data collected during almost a year of fieldwork in Bangladesh.

This project consists of a series of initiatives and actions proposed in 2005, from the University of Passo Fundo, with respect to the so-called “Beira Trilhos” territory: A community composed of approximately 1500 families, which occupy the areas along the railway that cuts the urban area of Passo Fundo—Brazil—over 15 km. The extension project aims to contribute to the legal, urban and social aspects, expanding its perspectives and interfaces. It seeks a solution that contributes to the construction of the right to housing and the city for the populations of the occupations of this urban territory, as part of the University’s Social Responsibility Policy. It entails improving quality of life and respecting social, legal, cultural and aesthetic needs, according to the Sustainable Development Goals in a global and integrated perspective. This article reports the construction of a community engagement project in its methodological bases as well as the result of different practices over the course of about 13 years. This article also presents results obtained so far, with emphasis on student active participation and their inter and multi-disciplinary involvement. It also focuses on the actions that take place in the community, academic training, including faculty, professional and personal experiences. The academic results directly relate to activities of the three pillars guiding Higher Education: community engagement, teaching and research. This project has also demonstrated the commitment of students and teachers and reinforced the role of universities to include SDGs in their own internal social responsibility policies.

Despite the continuing trend of diversifying ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities of systemic therapy students and clinicians in the United States, there is still a dearth of research and literature in the areas of multilingual clinician education and practice. This gap in research and resources leaves many students and practitioners without much guidance as they serve marginalized, non-English-speaking communities who are relatively unfamiliar with the culture of therapy. In this chapter, three multilingual Asian American practitioners (Chinese American, Korean American, and Vietnamese American) share anecdotes from the beginning stages of their careers learning to serve communities in their various non-English and heritage languages. Through our personal experiences, we will discuss the intersection of language(s), personal and professional identities, and Asian American experience as it relates to clinical practice and education.

Support, mentorship, and guidance are especially essential for the transition of international medical graduates (IMGs), who now comprise 26% of the total physician population in the USA (American Medical Association IMG Section Governing Council. International medical graduates in American medicine: contemporary challenges and opportunities. http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/img/img-workforce-paper.pdf). Indeed, IMGs may face many unique challenges in adjusting to medical practice in western cultural settings, and there is clearly a unique need for both more formalized sources of support such as mentors who understand the multifaceted and individualized challenges that IMGs face and informal support networks. We discuss the unique roles of these resources in helping IMGs navigate different cultural norms and expectations in the professional culture and structural hierarchy of the US medical system, career development, and individual and personal experiences of adjusting to a life and career in a new country. Finally, we discuss some current examples of IMG support programs as well as further recommendations for a more standardized program.

Following the phase of conquest, usually a temporary interim government was formed to supervise the incorporation of newly acquired territories. The timing of the incorporation, as well as the manner in which models from other parts of Europe were applied, influenced how Napoleonic governance worked out in practice. Importantly, the creation of so-called gouvernements généraux became a Napoleonic integration instrument. General-Governors Charles-François Lebrun in Amsterdam and Louis Nicolas Davout in Hamburg had similar tasks but made different choices. Their relationships with other actors, local and French, differed as well. In this chapter the two intermediary bodies are discussed, in relation to other Napoleonic institutions and their main protagonists. Often, Napoleonic officials who had already proven their worth elsewhere were employed in these areas. Thus, institutional examples and personal experiences from other parts of the Empire, such as Italy, influenced the integration of the North. Yet, being remote from the imperial core, many officials competed for power and hence for control of the integration process.

This paper critically examines the institutional practices of genetic counseling and testing for Huntington’s Disease (HD), a heritable and incurable neurodegenerative disorder. Drawing from Amartya Sen’s idea of justice and current genetic counseling practices, we make the case that genetic counseling and testing practices for HD must be improved within nonideal conditions with the goal of increasing the capabilities of patients as the main stakeholders in the process. While healthcare practitioners and medical institutions often create protocols and testing guidelines with the best interest of patients in mind, we assert that they fail to account for the obstacles and exclusionary mechanisms that result from the complex institutional interplay of healthcare as an ideal and the existing US health insurance system—a nonideal intersection that ultimately comes at the expense of individuals and families suffering from or at risk for HD. We make use of Amartya Sen’s realizations-oriented approach to justice to develop an ethical critique of the current institutional practices around HD, as well as to make proposals for a more just system of care that, though starting from nonideal conditions, values the lives and enhances the freedom of HD patients. To this end, we make a concerted effort to incorporate our combined philosophical, bioethical, and personal experiences with genetic counseling and testing literature in our critical analysis.

This chapter summarizes the main findings from a set of studies examining people’s willingness to forgive or reconcile after a conflict. These studies were conducted in post-civil war Lebanon, post-apartheid South Africa (and Togo), former Yugoslavia after the NATO bombing, the United States after the September 11 attacks, Northern Ireland after the bloody Sunday agreement, post-genocide Rwanda (and Cambodia), Israel and Palestine, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Latin America (Chile and Colombia), and three Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Italy, and Spain). Considerable differences exist among the members of these groups regarding their willingness to forgive or to reconcile with former opponents, whether individuals or groups. Group differences can be partly linked to participants’ previous personal experiences of suffering, the severity of the offense, the time elapsed since the events, the ongoing character of the disputes, and public decisions taken by offenders (e.g., seeking forgiveness). Individual differences can be related to personality factors such as empathy and perspective-taking, forgivingness or resentfulness, and the ability to relate with out-group members. They may also be associated with personal philosophical positions regarding the way people should live in society.

The authors describe in this paper how gender studies in the Nordic context grew into a strong and respected field of educational research, from its first steps in late 1970s until 2019. They identify trends that have persisted over decades and others that have emerged more recently. The authors draw primarily from various documents about Nordic collaboration, Nordic articles in the Gender and Education Journal and review studies. They also include their personal experiences as active researchers since the 1980s. They suggest that in the Nordic countries, gender studies in education were initiated by sociologists rather than feminist teachers (as in the UK) building on a relatively strong alliance between mainstream feminism, state feminist equality officers and feminist research. Gradually ethnography emerged as the main methodological perspective. After 2010 theoretical and methodological choices and themes widened such that the earlier focus on girls and gender relations shifted more to boys and gender diversity. Intersectionality was more emphasised, with post-structuralism having a considerable impact on the Nordic gender and education field.

In this chapter, the argument for the book is presented: national media and political rhetoric largely reborder the borderlands, while border leaders strategically and rhetorically deploy a different story to deborder the region from rest of the nation. “The border” has become a specific device in American media and political wrangling to border and reborder, processes of making or reinforcing social, economic, and cultural boundaries in our nation, that mirror historical discourse associated with colonialism and Western expansionism in the United States. Local leaders suggest the U.S. southern borderlands are uniquely and productively American because of the region’s proximity and interconnectedness to Mexico. The argument is contextualized within place-making about the U.S.–Mexico border in major national stories in the 2010s, the discipline of Anthropology, and the author’s professional and personal experiences. Positionality and reflexivity are highlighted as key orientations to anthropological analysis of narratives of places and people.

This chapter discusses my personal experiences as a clinician who contracted COVID-19, as a director of a nonprofit animal sanctuary, and as a clinician working in animal-assisted therapy (AAT) who has had to modify her treatment model in consideration of the quarantine health mandates. Although the human-animal bond has long been acknowledged as an effective treatment model, it is still considered a burgeoning field. The current health crisis has brought the benefits of the human-animal bond to the forefront of public perception. Both zooeyia (the benefits of the human-animal bond) and zoonosis (diseases transmitted by animals) will be discussed, as well as adaptations to AAT to work with clients remotely during quarantine regulations.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can experience discrimination due to individual, group and systemic oppressions. Individual and community attitudes and experiences of discrimination can impact on a person’s wellbeing, Allied health professionals are constantly called on to recognise the multi-layered impact of colonialism on those who seek their help, while simultaneously challenging their own perceptions and stereotypes. The chapter starts with definitions and statistics to contextualise the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders within the contemporary Australian environment. The link between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and emotional, physical and mental health is critically examined followed by the personal experiences of individuals as they navigate living with the impact of colonialism, discrimination and bias. Experiential activities that encourage the learner to test and challenge societal stereotypes, their own perceptions and gain a greater understanding of environmental, social and institutional barriers faced by Indigenous Australians will conclude this chapter.

All countries desire to develop, improve, adapt, or in some way, manage their domestic and international image. It is necessary for policymakers, companies’ managers and citizens to establish a competitive identity, which, in turn, challenges how place perceptions are formed and how countries create and disseminate their unique identities. When discussing consumer dispositions, theories and other elements related to place, Papadopoulos et al. (2018) suggest that it is important to have a global perspective of the concept, since place simultaneously includes and reproduces identities, memories, heritage, experiences and characteristics. The image that individuals hold about a place is built in their minds, and this process is dynamic depending upon several aspects such as “education; the news in the media; cultural products (e.g., books, movies, TV shows, magazines, music); family, friends, coworkers and other acquaintances; personal experiences through tourism or business travel or longer sojourns abroad; cultural interactions at one’s place including with inward tourists, migrants, or ethnic minorities; and products in the marketplace” (pp. 743–744). A place that holds a positive reputation captures the attention of companies, talents, visitors and investment, contributing to its competitiveness and sustainability (Morgan et al. 2011).

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Nordic and Baltic universities became engaged in researcher education co-operation in social work. Finland as a bilingual country (Finnish/Swedish) also shares a long common Nordic history of social policy development, especially with Sweden, but it also could now re-activate its special relationship with Estonia, due to the closeness of the Finnish and Estonian languages. Based on written material, personal experiences and interviews with some key players in the development of Nordic-Baltic researcher education co-operation initiated by Finland, this chapter explores the scientific prerequisites for and benefits of joint efforts in Nordic-Baltic researcher education and the impact of various scientific, historical and linguistic similarities and differences between the countries involved. The ultimate goal is to thereby contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of developing social work research and education in the Nordic-Baltic region as an example of the relevance of linguistic and historical differences and similarities.

Is it possible to ‘make inequality work for mutual benefit’? This chapter argue that it is and through reviews of personal experiences of working with colleagues in several Sahel countries it offers a tentative guide to a non-normative pragmatic approach to global injustices where we do something with what we can do something about. This is a step-by-step approach where the guiding principle is a commitment to establish collaborative relationships across structural inequalities that lasts over time based on mutual interests and gains accepting that these are not necessarily equally divided, but still facilitates research partners in the global South access to funding and to the agents of the international interventions that operates in their countries.

This chapter looks into the preparation and execution of research in challenging contexts. Focusing specifically on contexts with authoritarian characteristics, it highlights challenges and opportunities in who to ask for advice, and how to manage risks in the field. Drawing on personal experiences during fieldwork among medical workers in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, it specifically explores the challenges for young scholars, who work under high professional and personal pressure. Believing that well-executed fieldwork can be very valuable, it argues for improved risk management rather than risk aversion or risk transfer. Through the creation of tailor-made support to scholars and their projects, real meaning can be given to the words ‘duty of care’.

The text provides personal accounts of a researcher who self-identifies as Global South scholar. By telling his personal experiences as a researcher and, more importantly, as a subject of research, the author tries to identify some of stereotypes, obstacles and prejudices international scholars have in approaching local counterparts while doing their fieldwork related to peace and conflict studies. Accordingly, the text suggests possible ways how an international researcher could approach the local by employing notions of patience, empathy, assistance and cultural humility. By doing this, the author emphasizes that these human acts are as equally important as rigorous research methods and standards in understanding the complexities of the local setting where research takes place.

This chapter explores how technical-rational approaches to education improvement do not always work in the FAVE sector, and that their presence heavily influences decisions leaders make—for better or for worse. It suggests that democratic approaches to education leadership which have been tried in different contexts can be used to support the intellectual and social growth of education leaders, teachers, post-16 learners and their learning. It argues that ‘learning’ should not be treated as a commodity or another task for senior management to ‘deal with’. Instead, it is argued that ‘learning’ should become the central organising principle for the whole college. Through the work of (Coffield, Yes, But What Has Semmelweis to Do with My Professional Development as a Tutor? London: LSN (Learning and Skills Network), 2010; Coffield, Will the Leopard Change its Spots?: A New Model of Inspection for Ofsted. London: Institute of Education Press, University College London, 2017), this chapter argues that learning can and should take place at all levels of an organisation including individual, group and organisational and that, ‘all tutors are learners and all learners tutors’ (Coffield, Yes, But What Has Semmelweis to Do with My Professional Development as a Tutor? London: LSN (Learning and Skills Network), 2010, p. 9). Personal experiences of a number of leadership roles in the FAVE sector are drawn upon to provide critical incidents which demonstrate how education managers struggle to make wise judgments in complex and uncertain circumstances where it is not always clear what to do for the best (Heilbronn, The Nature of Practice-Based Knowledge and Understanding Gregson, M. et al Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education. London: Bloomsbury, 2011 in Gregson, Hillier, Biesta, Duncan, Nixon, Spedding, Wakeling, Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education. London: Bloomsbury, 2015a).

This chapter analyzes and discusses the outreach work of a Catholic LGBTI organization, Pastoral de la Diversidad Sexual, which intervenes in Chilean Catholic schools through the testimony of its members. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, volunteers or educational workers at the Pastoral were interviewed in order to describe their own experiences speaking about homosexual marginalization. The results show the tension between power and resistance, and the ambiguous possibilities of transforming the hetero-cisgender norms by sharing personal experiences. These testimonies are understood as a historically situated effort, where an attempt is made to modify the effect of a power technology.

In this chapter, the authors describe their personal experiences as members of an advising group within the Educational Studies doctoral program in the USA. Their personal insights bring to life the theory and praxis of a relational feminist space, in which emotions represent realities, and engaged listening and feedback practices support a dynamic ecology of personal and intellectual growth. In such a space, the shared feeling of connectivity and belonging opens pathways of intellectual exploration, enabling members to re-see and re-think earlier held constraining beliefs. Specifically, this chapter will illuminate practices of self-care that helped women to address issues of authenticity, work-life balance, the humanization of research and graduate programs, and to build resilience to sustain progress toward individually set goals.