Moving-with & Moving-through Homelands, Languages & Memory: An Arts-based Walkography

This book is a work of walkography: its central source is the use of walking as a mode of inquiry, which is shared through the ‘ography’ of an account or portrayal that is written, visual, performed. The ‘walk’ of this walkography is an embodied movement through space, as well as a performance ‘drawing’, of experience and encounter. This method of inquiry resonates with the fundamental premise of this work, that of migration and diaspora.

In 2015, an unprecedented number of migrants and refugees reached Europe. The resultant crisis was the biggest in history, with most migrants entering Europe by sea. Although under different circumstances and different times, this event has synergies with post-War migration, described through the lens of Arts-based research in Displacement, Identity and Belonging: An Arts-based, Auto/Biographical Portrayal of Ethnicity & Experience (Sense, 2015). This work is a sequel to that book. It is an extension of the themes of identity, belonging and migration; however, it is also a development and a complete work in and of itself, both embedded in and transcendent of the first book. The books can operate both in tandem and individually as stand-alone works.

The layering of stories, photography, and poetry build upon each other in an engaging and accessible reading that appeals to a multitude of audiences and purposes. This work can be used as a core reading in a range of courses in education, teacher education, ethnicity studies, cultural studies, sociology, psychology, history, and communication, or read simply for pleasure. The book makes significant contributions to the literature on qualitative research, arts-based research, and walking research.

“Stunning, simply stunning. Alexandra Lasczik Cutcher has created a breathtaking work of scholarship that is evocative and provocative, poetic and artistic, and perhaps most of all, captivating and challenging. She calls us into her walkography and we are spellbound – walking with her through her homelands, memories and languages. The interruptions of poems and images give pause as we take a breath to linger in our own stories, before we venture forward again, to breathe in again the images and histories, past and present. The entire book is an event, an encounter, a walking-with and walking-through as we come to understand what it means to come home to a place we’ve never lived before. Stunning, simply stunning.” – Rita L. Irwin, Professor, Art Education, Distinguished University Scholar, The University of British Columbia

Dr Alexandra Lasczik Cutcher is a multi-award winning academic at Southern Cross University, Australia. Her research focuses on what the Arts can be and do educationally, expressively, as research method, language, catharsis, reflective instrument and documented form. These understandings inform Alexandra’s teaching and her spirited advocacy for Arts education.