The Grief Catalogue: Neurodivergent Pathways to Beautiful Grief

NeuroGLAM
August 21st 2024

The Grief Catalogue: Neurodivergent Pathways to Beautiful Grief

Talk by: Selena Gignac

Trigger Warnings: Grief and loss, death.

Abstract

"It is heart-wrenching, upsetting, and beautiful all at once." — Contributor

The Grief Catalogue is a collective project by neurodivergent and disabled doctoral students, unified by our shared experiences of grief during our time in library school. This interactive exhibit shares our deeply personal losses, inviting others to reflect on how their own experiences with grief shape their positionality and roles within academia.

Grief is often isolating, spanning the event of loss, the grieving process, and the transformation of self that grief demands; and grief seems to demand—relentlessly. As graduate students, our grief collides head-on with our roles as new researchers. We are asked to situate ourselves within the creation of knowledge, frame our understanding of our place in the world, and infuse these perspectives into our research. Yet, how can we make sense of our place as researchers when our very sense of self has been shaken?

How do we establish our presence as respected scholars while balancing vulnerability in our work? The pressure we feel does not solely come from grief itself but from the expectation to neatly package our grief—masking the ways it spills out of each of us. The Grief Catalogue subverts the academic norm that rewards those who push through crises and remain 'productive' for the ease and comfort of others. It plays with concepts
of space and time; public and private; and visible and invisible grief; co-creating an evolving gallery of collective vulnerability and raw beauty.

Project co-creator Selena Gignac will share how this exhibit came together and the surprising ways our divergent expressions of grief brought together an academic community. The depth of engagement and emotional response revealed the need for more spaces that acknowledge and integrate grief and vulnerability within academia. Our neuro/divergent pathways of grief created an experience that drew out non-typical expressions of loss from others and welcomes grief as a complex and rich contribution to our academic identities.