Colleen
Colleen
St. Stephen's College at the University of Alberta
Country
Canada
Member since
Bio
Colleen Sheehan Deatherage (MSW, DMin) is a researcher and instructor at St. Stephen’s College, University of Alberta whose ethnographic research during her Doctor of Ministry culminated in her dissertation examining the experience of personal sanctuary within the context of chronic illness.
Her interest in the subject matter followed decades of social work experience where she witnessed people who did not identify as religious/spiritual engaging in folkloric/spiritual practices as a coping strategy in times of precarity. Her personal experiences with lupus contributed to these interests. During her years-long academic apprenticeship with Dr. Natalie Kononenko, Colleen was immersed in folklore scholarship focussed on belief, tradition, sacralisation, vernacular religion, and material culture.
Under the supervision of Dr. Laura Béres, she wove together the folkloric with social work praxis to develop her theory of personal sanctuary. Her work in this realm continues, focussing on embodied experiences, and the resultant material culture, which is what led her to experimental archeology. Her work in exarc focusses on investigating women's unseen work in the historical record (such as everyday material culture) and recreating pieces to understand the experience of this work during times of precarity, what it might have meant for the creators at the time, and what we might learn to help us today.
These explorations and engagements forge new territory in both the folkloric and social work fields. The ongoing goals of her research are to interrogate and explore personal sanctuary while honouring, revealing, and understanding the data, the participants, and their experiences. Her work is undergirded with a desire to offer solutions to help present day people cope with experiences of precarity.
Her interest in the subject matter followed decades of social work experience where she witnessed people who did not identify as religious/spiritual engaging in folkloric/spiritual practices as a coping strategy in times of precarity. Her personal experiences with lupus contributed to these interests. During her years-long academic apprenticeship with Dr. Natalie Kononenko, Colleen was immersed in folklore scholarship focussed on belief, tradition, sacralisation, vernacular religion, and material culture.
Under the supervision of Dr. Laura Béres, she wove together the folkloric with social work praxis to develop her theory of personal sanctuary. Her work in this realm continues, focussing on embodied experiences, and the resultant material culture, which is what led her to experimental archeology. Her work in exarc focusses on investigating women's unseen work in the historical record (such as everyday material culture) and recreating pieces to understand the experience of this work during times of precarity, what it might have meant for the creators at the time, and what we might learn to help us today.
These explorations and engagements forge new territory in both the folkloric and social work fields. The ongoing goals of her research are to interrogate and explore personal sanctuary while honouring, revealing, and understanding the data, the participants, and their experiences. Her work is undergirded with a desire to offer solutions to help present day people cope with experiences of precarity.