Beth Gornall | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Beth Gornall
Title: Ordinary Women Making Ordinary Magic: Loss and Resilience Through Auto/Ethnography
Major: Communication Studies
Advisors: Zhenyu Tian; Ahmet Atay

The purpose of this study was to explore the resilience processes intersection with the grieving experience by delving into narratives of loss from women in my family and extended family, including myself, and a few women (e.g., grandmother) with whom I share a significant relationship. Through the use of auto/ethnography, I identified communicative resources that enable these women to reintegrate from disruption to construct and enact resilience. I also developed my own identity and cultivated my own resilience to help myself enact anticipatory resilience, specifically by using stories as a resource for resilience. Finally, the stories that I shared in this project are able to resonate with people, women in particular, who have experienced or are experiencing similar struggles, which may facilitate their meaning making.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.