Story as Theory - Narrative as Knowing

Feb 4

In this episode, I am joined by Debbie-Ann Chambers, of The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, for a reflective conversation on autoethnography, narrative, and Caribbean ways of knowing.

Together, we explore story as theory, narrative as knowledge, and embodiment as evidence. Debbie-Ann reflects on the demands of vulnerability in narrative research, the ethical tensions of placing the self into scholarship, and the limits of academic traditions that privilege distance over presence. Through stories of silence, drumming, memory, and community listening, the episode foregrounds how knowledge is shaped by history, safety, and embodied experience.

Rather than treating storytelling as illustrative or supplementary, this conversation insists on narrative as rigorous intellectual practice, grounded in Caribbean cultural life and epistemic traditions.

What This Episode Offers

A grounded exploration of autoethnography in a Caribbean context, beyond abstract methodological debate
Insight into vulnerability, authority, and ethics in narrative research
A reframing of silence, embodiment, and cultural practice as legitimate sites of knowledge
Practical and conceptual language for scholars and students working with qualitative, narrative, and decolonial methods
Affirmation that Caribbean ways of knowing are not peripheral, but intellectually generative and methodologically robust

📚 Further Reading / Resources

The Power of Drumming : https://www.instagram.com/jessegdrumming?igsh=NGxnc3Fmd201ZTg5

Hickling FW. Owning our madness: Contributions of Jamaican psychiatry to decolonizing Global Mental Health. Transcultural Psychiatry. 2019;57(1):19-31. doi:10.1177/1363461519893142

Papers on social class and PAR

Smith, L., Bratini, L., Chambers, D.-A., Jensen, R. V., & Romero, L. (2010). Between idealism and reality: Meeting the challenges of participatory action research. Action Research, 8(4), 407-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750310366043 (Original work published 2010)

Smith, L., Chambers, D.-A. and Bratini, L. (2009). When Oppression Is the Pathogen: The Participatory Development of Socially Just Mental Health Practice. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79: 159-168. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015353

Appio, L., Chambers, D.-A. and Mao, S. (2013), Listening to the Voices of the Poor and Disrupting the Silence About Class Issues in Psychotherapy. J. Clin. Psychol., 69: 152-161. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.21954