Description
As Cree (2023) explains in relation to critical military studies (CMS), “creativity in research is not just about ‘research methods’…but…finding new ways of knowing the world and engaging openly and actively in curiosity” (p. xiii, see also Woodward et al., 2025). This curiosity can be supported, among other ways, through creative forms of writing, such as expressive writing. Expressive writing can assist people in exploring narratives and identities with respect to the “internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity” (Adler, 2012, p. 367). When participating in expressive writing, women military veterans are offered the opportunity to reframe, reconsider, and reclaim narratives of their service, demonstrating how individual narratives—each “story of the self”—are interconnected with collective experiences as relates to military culture and structural marginalization (Taber, 2024). CMS scholars such as Caddick (2024) utilize narrative methods to explore cultural narratives of military service while Hast (2023) uses spoken word to problematize cadet training. However, little is known about creative writing as a methodology with military women veterans exploring gendered narratives. Our methodology blends narrative research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) with creative writing research (Zebracki et al., 2025) that is informed by fiction-based research (Leavy, 2023) and applied to expressive writing workshops for military veteran women. This paper discusses the methodological basis for our research as we describe how creative writing can contribute to CMS understandings about women’s military service, to work towards institutional and social reform.
