Description
Creative methodologies in critical military studies (CMS) can “offer us the tools for rethinking both how we tell and who tells counter-narratives about military life” (Steel, 2023, p. 168). As “knowledge production about war [and the military] is gendered and controlled to deny women a legitimate voice to narrate their…stories” (West, 2023, p. 184), we focus on learning from and about women’s military and veteran voices. Voice work is a well-established technique used with actors and others that offers the opportunity for participants to understand the connection between the voice, the self, and the body, improving confidence and somatic awareness (Steen, 2013; Wells, 2024). We were inspired to explore the practice of voice work in the form of a narrative (Woodiwiss, Smith, & Lockwood, 2017) pilot study with military women veterans (using a pre-chosen poem by Adrienne Rich, “Diving into the wreck,” 1973). During the data collection, our focus group discussions revealed how the voice work became an unexpected catalyst for critical reflection on how military women’s voices are shaped, policed, and weaponised within military environments. Now, we are in the process of developing this practice into an innovative methodology by specifically centering questions about voice in data collection and analysis to explore the counter-narratives of military women veterans. We are building on the voice work by incorporating expressive writing (Taber, 2024) and participatory filmmaking (West, 2025) into this CMS methodology. In this way, participants will voice—write, speak, film, and share—their own stories of the regimented and the playful as relates to their service and veteran lives.
