(Un)felt ferments: Limning liminal professional subjectivities with pragmatist–posthuman feminism and intimate scholarship

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate liminality as processual experiences and to disrupt (hetero)normative paradigms of organizational liminality identity work. I present an intimate inquiry of liminality from within lived liminal experience. My empirical focus is on personal liminal subjectivities as they unfold in specific, psychosocial time, and spaces—my situated, changing lives as a woman executive, mature doctoral candidate, and emergent academic. The posthuman calls for multi-directional, transdisciplinary openings, and experimental forms. In this paper I make four interweaving research contributions: (1) braiding philosophies, I conceptualize a pragmatist–posthuman organic theory of liminal subjectivity; (2) I illuminate my lived liminal experiences as affectual, conscious, and semi-conscious, where my identities are unbounded from self and recast as sociomaterial, entangled productions; (3) I innovate “methodologically” with an embrocation of Dewey’s experiential and esthetic philosophical methods, a flowing mixture of sensate scholarship and the adoption of radical–reflexivities; (4) I call for a community of inquiry into liminality as part of a quest to develop knowing democratically, in partnership with practitioners and all matter. My unfinished adventure is to perform scholarship useful to academics and practitioners, which can help make our practical lived experiences of liminality more bearable and fruitful.

Tread lightly: Liminality and Covid‐19 reflections

“…Arguably, feminist writing has always operated in an in‐between space, carefully blending different genres, performances, and experiences. Writing differently (Beavan, 2021; Gilmore et al., 2019; Grey & Sinclair, 2006; Helin, 2020; Katila, 2019; Kivinen, 2021; Lykke, 2014; Pullen, 2018) is a work of art (Biehl‐Missal, 2015), where authors juxtaposition a set of ideas together, threading emotions, thoughts, and actions otherwise not combined (Grey & Sinclair, 2006). Writing differently moves beyond static representation (Beavan et al., 2021) and opens up different ways of learning, where the author is a central source of knowledge production (Spry, 2001).…”

“…Therefore, my writing may feel ambiguous, messy, in‐between the run and the pandemic, and in‐between the visual and the written. All of this contributes to not only using liminality as a theoretical lens to understand my lived experience during the pandemic but to also engage with liminality as a means of writing differently, where authors attempt to reveal the ambivalence within that process (Beavan, 2021).…”

“…As an engaged researcher, I couldn't help to bear witness to the inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic without reflecting and writing–without pushing in some way the bounds of academic convention. “How can we argue for equality and inclusiveness if we won't accept alterity in [Management and Organization Studies]” (Beavan, 2021, p. 3). “How can we experiment to show, through the very structure of our text, that research about gender and organization does not have to be limited by the genre constraints of the male pen?” (Beavan et al., 2021, p. 451).…”

“…Therefore, the visual element of this paper also contributes to creating a liminal experience. This paper adds to feminist efforts of writing differently, which shows that knowledge can be produced and conveyed beyond the rigid script of academic convention (Beavan, 2021;Beavan et al, 2021;Gilmore et al, 2019;Grey & Sinclair, 2006). By using the 10 KM 2 run as an analogy to describe the pandemic, it provides an accessible methodology to convey personal experiences within a wider social context.…”

“…This was recently explored beautifully byBeavan's (2021) work titled (Un)felt ferments: Limning liminal professional subjectivities with pragmatist-posthuman feminism and intimate scholarship. Her writing exemplifies vividly the organic and in-between nature of writing from a liminal space.4 I was blessed with a wonderful supervisor and committee members, who gave a quick turnaround of comments and feedback.…”