The Department of Geography Seminar Series 2016-17
From the borderlands of surfing, self and sense
Easkey Britton
Whitaker Institute
National University of Ireland Galway
Abstract:
Using the physical culture of surfing as its focus, this paper presents an auto-ethnographic account of the journey of being a woman who surfs, doing 'social good’ and engaged research in surfing. Reflecting upon personal experiences and the origins of my beliefs reveals the concepts of liminality, boundary-crossing and borderlands and how it affects my positionality. That is; the geographical and political borders of my origin; the borders of the masculine and feminine that exist within my surfing body; the borders between my senses and the sea; the border between land and water. This concept of borderlands is then used to frame a sensory body narrative that investigates the coming together of body, space, place, identity, mobility in the fluid environment of the sea and movement of waves. I explore how this creates a language of the senses and relationship. This paper sketches these relations between surfing, senses and identity in order to understand the how we journey to where and why. Findings from case studies are presented to further evidence a process of reclamation that is underway to understand surfing as a boundary-crossing, feminine, sensual and reciprocal experience. The case studies show how surfing is fostering new relationships with women the sea and society in both Papua New Guinea and Iran. This paper challenges the absence, or misrepresentation, of the feminine and lack of open dialogue on gender, sex and identity within historical and contemporary travel and adventure literature and mainstream surf and adventure culture. Furthermore, it contributes to how we might engage a more critical self-reflective practice that allows for a deepening of our understanding of positionality on, in and between borderlands, and how we consider the body (and senses) in knowledge production.
4.00-5.30pm
Thursday December 1, 2016
Rocque Lab, Ground Floor, Rhetoric House
Maynooth University