ARU team
Hannah West
Senior Research Fellow
Emma Murray
Associate Professor
This narrative study examined the experiences of military women veterans in a voice work workshop, co-led by Nadine George and Mary Jane Wells.
This research constituted a pilot study using narrative methodology to explore military women veteran’s experiences with voice, with the aim of understanding how their voices and experiences intersect with military service and culture.
In choosing to bring together an international group of women military veterans, the researchers’ aim is to explore the cultural, educational and professional influences on service members from different countries.
Voice work offers the opportunity for participants to understand the connection between the voice, the self and the body, improving confidence, somatic awareness and a greater understanding and control of the breath (Steen, 2013).
The work uniquely uses sung sound directly linked to the body and to work with text in order to focus on personal self-reflection, enriching understandings and implications of literal and metaphorical voice in the world. The roots of this voice work lie with Alfred Wolfsohn teaching sung sound in order to deal with his own traumatic experiences during World War I.
This was a pilot study seeking to set the foundations for a future major collaborative grant application between Dr Nancy Taber from Brock University, Canada and Dr Hannah West at CEEUPS. Consequently, at this stage the potential value is to the research community in improving knowledge and understanding of voice work as a creative methodology for exploring the military service and culture.
The research questions are:
The use of creative methodologies can be useful to “offer a process through which new realms of critical possibility can be opened up” in order to “produce a new space for thinking differently” about military organizations (Cree, 2023, p. xv).
Specifically, our aim is to “emphasis[e] collaboration, imagination and artistic co-production” (p. xvi) using a feminist narrative methodology in a voice workshop. By exploring the literal and metaphorical voices of participants, the aim is to examine “not only…the stories being told, but also…the contexts within which women make sense of and narrative their lives” (Woodiwiss, Smith, & Lockwood, 2017, p. 5). As so much of military service and veteran transitions are defined by male narratives (Eichler, 2016), it is important to learn from women’s counter-narratives (Maynes, Pierce, & Laslett, 2008, West & Antrobus, 2021) of military life.
Data was gathered through initial, daily and exit focus groups. Participants were asked to relate narratives of their experiences in the workshop and how those experiences relate to their military service.
Analysis will use critical feminist narrative approaches (Woodiwiss, Smith, & Lockwood, 2017) to interrogate the research questions through the data gathered from participating in the workshops and focus groups.
This workshop was led by Nadine George and Mary Jane Wells over four days at CEEUPS. The workshop focused on group work with breath, and then individual work on the voice and different sound qualities, before extending to text work, using the Adrienne Rich poem, 'Into the Wreck'.
High-profile media exposés about misogynistic and racist cultures in the Western militaries indicate a crisis point for toxic masculinity in these services. In attempting to disrupt mainstream understandings of military service and culture, this project seeks to establish a new methodological approach to examine wicked problems in critical and insightful ways. By exploring challenging and sensitive topics in abstract ways, through voicework, we will unlock new ways of seeing that help to bring about change (Cree, 2023).
The primary beneficiaries at this pilot study stage will be the participating team of researchers, who will learn about the technique of voice work and its relevance to the military community. By providing the methodological foundations for a future study on a larger scale that will shape new critical understandings of military service and culture, this will then stand to benefit the military community and society.
Senior Research Fellow
Associate Professor