Date of Award
2024
Abstract
My focus on care was inspired by experiences and grapplings with queerness, community, chosen family, intimacy, and longings for interdependence, reciprocity, and well-being. The questions that guided this inquiry were: What practices and conditions facilitate the flow of care where it needs and wants to go? In other words, how can the feeling of care for another be transformed into another’s feeling of being cared for? How can my leadership support those practices and conditions in my interpersonal relationships and communities? I used self- and relational observation and tracking, created and distributed a zine, held conversations, and invited reflections on care. My primary site of praxis was my closest relationships, with inquiry and conversation extending into my communities, made up of primarily white, college-educated, and middle-class people in the Northeastern US. A key outcome is the tuning of my and my participants’ awareness to how care happens in our relationships and communities. Self-observation revealed several patterns, like difficulty revealing need and asking for support, some of which are rooted in white supremacy. Tensions and questions arose around vulnerability, power, saviorism, and negotiating need and capacity. Next steps include practicing gentleness towards myself, seeking support and community in developing embodied practice of healing from whiteness, discerning motivations for offering care, and continuing the cyclical journey of practice, experience, and integrating learnings around care
Program Director
Matthew Kolan, PhD
Professional Affiliate Anchor Coach
Connor Stedman, M.S.
Professional Affiliate Process Coach
Ramsey Champagne, M.Ed., LMHC
Document Type
Project
Recommended Citation
Cultrara, Ollie T., "MASTERS PROJECT: TOWARDS INTERDEPENDENCE: ATTENDING TO PRACTICES AND PATTERNS OF CARE" (2024). Rubenstein School Leadership for Sustainability Project Publications. 50.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/rslspp/50