The Research

This doctoral research explores the lived experiences of individuals who are related to someone who has taken a life. While much attention is given to victims and perpetrators within systems of justice, little space exists for families whose identities are profoundly altered by violence they did not commit.

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Through arts-based inquiry, relational storytelling, and community witnessing, this project examines how narratives of shame, stigma, and silence can be re-storied into spaces of meaning, dignity, and connection. The research integrates restorative justice frameworks, knowledge mobilization, and Indigenous-informed ways of knowing to explore how art can function as both method and medicine.

This work is not only academic. It is personal. It is communal. It is an offering toward widening the circle.

 

The full dissertation is available below.