Un/thinking with Thread/s: Needling Through Boundaries Related to COVID-19 and Medical Training

Veronica Mitchell

doi:10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.14

Authors

Veronica Mitchell University of the Western Cape

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.14

Abstract

This article draws on my connection with sewing threads, and explores how the 2020 Massive Microscopic Sensemaking (MMS) online challenge contributed to an emergent entanglement of timespacemattering related to COVID-19, teaching and researching medical learning in obstetrics, and thinking further with my PhD. It explores affirmative processes enacted during times of anxiety, when my thoughts needled through in-between spaces with different times and materials that were generative and productive. I explain my rhizomatic movements that bleed through conventional separations and boundary-making assumptions. I draw on Karen Barad’s agential realism to theorize the emergence of creative relationalities with artful artifacts enacted with medical undergraduate students, with participants in the MMS project, and with my own PhD during times of tension.

Author Biography

Veronica Mitchell, University of the Western Cape

Veronica Mitchell (PhD) is a Research Associate in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape and a facilitator in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her physiotherapy background and her experiences in human rights education led to her interest in exploring the medical curriculum and the force it has on students’ becoming. Her teaching and research focus is related to obstetric violence in birthing facilities. Using a posthumanism perspective, arts-based methodologies such as drawings and performances have enriched the students’ engagement. She promotes the production of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a sharing of knowledge for the public good. Her publications include a research blog, authored websites, and journal papers.

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