Erin K Willer
Biographic Data
| ID | 650444 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erin K Willer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erin K |
| FAMILY NAME | Willer |
| SIGNATURE | WILLER E K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Denver |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 92 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A Re(Defining) Moment: Eulogizing Good Death in the Face of Covid-19
Master narratives of "Good death" that render the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 fatalities as inherently "Bad" exacerbate the profound layers of grief people are experiencing as a result of the pandemic. This (re)defining moments essay engages autoethnographic writing and eulogy as methods to resist such master narratives. In particular, the author re-stories the loss of Katherine, a beloved one who died of COVID-19 "alone" in a hospital. Th…
Running-In(to) Transition: Embodied Practice under the Load of Infertility, Baby Loss, and Motherhood
Running is an embodied feminist practice that both shapes and reflects who women are. The field of tribology includes the science and technology of how surfaces interact in relative motion to one another, as well as how the "running-in" of these planes under load contributes to a "steady state" or balance. In this essay I employ embodiment and the tribology frameworks of running-in and steady state in order to explore meanings that emerge over a …
Mad to the bone: Learning outcomes of critical grief pedagogy
We outline critical grief pedagogy as a Mad feminist response to the silencing of loss that often occurs in academic spaces. This pedagogical framework creates openings for students to “break open the bone” of their own and others’ losses, particularly through community-engaged learning and research. Using collaborative autoethnography, in this essay we (a professor and her mentees) explore our experiences working with the Scraps of the Heart Pro…
Our babies[’] count[er story]: A narrative ethnography of a baby loss remembrance walk ritual
The non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) hosts annual remembrance walks that gather bereaved families to honor babies who have died. Grounded in narrative theory and research on family communication rituals, the present study focused on understanding how the NILMDTS Remembrance Walk counternarrates the experience of baby loss vis-à-vis the master narrative that silences it. Our narrative ethnography included participating …
A visual narrative analysis of children’s baby loss remembrance drawings
Children experiencing the death of baby brother or sister have reported individual, familial, and communicative challenges. Siblings also have indicated that the loss of a baby in their family enriched their lives despite their pain. The present study extends this work by focusing not only on siblings but also other children enmeshed in the family system. Additionally, we heed the call for the use of arts-based methods in family communication by …
The Hea/r/tist Part: Turning the Point of Mothering Toward 100
In this Defining Moments essay, I story the a/r/tographical practice of coming to understand who I am as a mother, artist, researcher, and teacher in the face of my experiences with infertility, pregnancy loss, and the death of my son Milo. Through living inquiry and artistically capturing the turning points that have defined me over time, I make sense of what it means to do hea/r/t work as I engage compassionate love alongside those I mother
Health-care Provider Compassionate Love and Women's Infertility Stressors
The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between doctor compassionate love and treatment, relational, and psychological stressors, as well as to identify effective health-care provider compassionate messages. Participants were 233 women who had been treated for infertility in the past 12 months. Doctor compassionate love was directly associated with positive affect during treatment, perceived treatment stress, and self-esteem…
Exploring Links Between Well-Being and Interactional Sense-Making in Married Couples' Jointly Told Stories of Stress
Narrative theorizing suggests that narrating stress, difficulty, or trauma can be beneficial for improved mental health, yet extant research tends to consider narrating stress as an individual or psychological construct. However, in close relationships, people often experience shared stressors and jointly tell their shared stories of difficulty to others. Thus, joint storytelling processes likely also relate to individual health. We tested this e…
Face needs, intragroup status, and women's reactions to socially aggressive face threats
Socially aggressive face threats (SAFTs) are messages that threaten one's identity or positive face. Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face-threatening nature of social aggression in predicting correlates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well-be…
Constructing family: A typology of voluntary kin
This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four vo…
Constructing family: A typology of voluntary kin
This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four vo…
Exploring Links Between Well-Being and Interactional Sense-Making in Married Couples' Jointly Told Stories of Stress
Narrative theorizing suggests that narrating stress, difficulty, or trauma can be beneficial for improved mental health, yet extant research tends to consider narrating stress as an individual or psychological construct. However, in close relationships, people often experience shared stressors and jointly tell their shared stories of difficulty to others. Thus, joint storytelling processes likely also relate to individual health. We tested this e…
The Hea/r/tist Part: Turning the Point of Mothering Toward 100
In this Defining Moments essay, I story the a/r/tographical practice of coming to understand who I am as a mother, artist, researcher, and teacher in the face of my experiences with infertility, pregnancy loss, and the death of my son Milo. Through living inquiry and artistically capturing the turning points that have defined me over time, I make sense of what it means to do hea/r/t work as I engage compassionate love alongside those I mother
Health-care Provider Compassionate Love and Women's Infertility Stressors
The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between doctor compassionate love and treatment, relational, and psychological stressors, as well as to identify effective health-care provider compassionate messages. Participants were 233 women who had been treated for infertility in the past 12 months. Doctor compassionate love was directly associated with positive affect during treatment, perceived treatment stress, and self-esteem…
Our babies[’] count[er story]: A narrative ethnography of a baby loss remembrance walk ritual
The non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) hosts annual remembrance walks that gather bereaved families to honor babies who have died. Grounded in narrative theory and research on family communication rituals, the present study focused on understanding how the NILMDTS Remembrance Walk counternarrates the experience of baby loss vis-à-vis the master narrative that silences it. Our narrative ethnography included participating …
Face needs, intragroup status, and women's reactions to socially aggressive face threats
Socially aggressive face threats (SAFTs) are messages that threaten one's identity or positive face. Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face-threatening nature of social aggression in predicting correlates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well-be…
Exploring Links Between Well-Being and Interactional Sense-Making in Married Couples' Jointly Told Stories of Stress
Narrative theorizing suggests that narrating stress, difficulty, or trauma can be beneficial for improved mental health, yet extant research tends to consider narrating stress as an individual or psychological construct. However, in close relationships, people often experience shared stressors and jointly tell their shared stories of difficulty to others. Thus, joint storytelling processes likely also relate to individual health. We tested this e…
Face needs, intragroup status, and women's reactions to socially aggressive face threats
Socially aggressive face threats (SAFTs) are messages that threaten one's identity or positive face. Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face-threatening nature of social aggression in predicting correlates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well-be…
Constructing family: A typology of voluntary kin
This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four vo…
Health-care Provider Compassionate Love and Women's Infertility Stressors
The purpose of the present study was to examine relationships between doctor compassionate love and treatment, relational, and psychological stressors, as well as to identify effective health-care provider compassionate messages. Participants were 233 women who had been treated for infertility in the past 12 months. Doctor compassionate love was directly associated with positive affect during treatment, perceived treatment stress, and self-esteem…
A visual narrative analysis of children’s baby loss remembrance drawings
Children experiencing the death of baby brother or sister have reported individual, familial, and communicative challenges. Siblings also have indicated that the loss of a baby in their family enriched their lives despite their pain. The present study extends this work by focusing not only on siblings but also other children enmeshed in the family system. Additionally, we heed the call for the use of arts-based methods in family communication by …
The Hea/r/tist Part: Turning the Point of Mothering Toward 100
In this Defining Moments essay, I story the a/r/tographical practice of coming to understand who I am as a mother, artist, researcher, and teacher in the face of my experiences with infertility, pregnancy loss, and the death of my son Milo. Through living inquiry and artistically capturing the turning points that have defined me over time, I make sense of what it means to do hea/r/t work as I engage compassionate love alongside those I mother
Our babies[’] count[er story]: A narrative ethnography of a baby loss remembrance walk ritual
The non-profit organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) hosts annual remembrance walks that gather bereaved families to honor babies who have died. Grounded in narrative theory and research on family communication rituals, the present study focused on understanding how the NILMDTS Remembrance Walk counternarrates the experience of baby loss vis-à-vis the master narrative that silences it. Our narrative ethnography included participating …
Running-In(to) Transition: Embodied Practice under the Load of Infertility, Baby Loss, and Motherhood
Running is an embodied feminist practice that both shapes and reflects who women are. The field of tribology includes the science and technology of how surfaces interact in relative motion to one another, as well as how the "running-in" of these planes under load contributes to a "steady state" or balance. In this essay I employ embodiment and the tribology frameworks of running-in and steady state in order to explore meanings that emerge over a …
Mad to the bone: Learning outcomes of critical grief pedagogy
We outline critical grief pedagogy as a Mad feminist response to the silencing of loss that often occurs in academic spaces. This pedagogical framework creates openings for students to “break open the bone” of their own and others’ losses, particularly through community-engaged learning and research. Using collaborative autoethnography, in this essay we (a professor and her mentees) explore our experiences working with the Scraps of the Heart Pro…
A Re(Defining) Moment: Eulogizing Good Death in the Face of Covid-19
Master narratives of "Good death" that render the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 fatalities as inherently "Bad" exacerbate the profound layers of grief people are experiencing as a result of the pandemic. This (re)defining moments essay engages autoethnographic writing and eulogy as methods to resist such master narratives. In particular, the author re-stories the loss of Katherine, a beloved one who died of COVID-19 "alone" in a hospital. Th…
Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Art (5 works) · Narrative (5 works) · Psychotherapist (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (4 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Developmental psychology (3 works)