Handout for Florida State Symposium - Storytelling

PILLARS OF JUSTICE: STORYTELLING, DIALOGS AND RESEARCH
Brenda Waugh and Paulette Moore
Florida State University, January 19, 2009

In creating our short film, Pillars of Justice, our goal is to explore how those who work in courthouses perceive the impact of architecture on justice. Paulette Moore is an award-winning director, producer and writer with twenty years of experience in documentaries, commercials and news. Brenda Waugh is an attorney with over twenty years of experience in civil and criminal litigation. Both of us are graduate students at the Center for Justice and Peace at Eastern Mennonite University. In bringing our diverse experience to the project, we not only explore the emerging themes, but also question the process that we employ in conducting our research. We are working to create a just process that promotes dialog between equal participants, “researcher” and “subject”, in the film.

We began the project in the fall of 2008 by scouting locations and visiting courthouses in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and the northern Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Since a new “state of the art” judicial center had recently been erected in Martinsburg, West Virginia, that locale provided participants with a broad historical perspective of courthouse design. As we followed suggestions of storytellers and pure chance, we discussed the issues with judges, prosecutors, clerks, defense attorneys, courthouse employees, security officers and litigants. We toured five courthouses and visited several courthouses which are no longer in use. Themes quickly emerged such as the impact of buildings which focus on security, shared bathrooms, and the creation of space and intimacy in the courtroom. In the course of our work, we employed the following research methods in order to explore justice both in themes and in the development of Pillars of Justice.
Analysis. We employed an organic, non-linear and inclusive review of the stories. As much as possible, we avoided imposition of categorization of the stories which runs the risk of reshaping the experience of the storytellers.

Equal relationship between storytellers. Our intention was to mindfully assess our questions, our methods, our own stories and our views during each step of the process to maintain equality with the storytellers, who were not technically creating the film. While this equality may be an impossible result, it is a worthwhile goal.
Vulnerability. In order to create a more equal relationship with the storytellers, we told our own stories. We recognize that we bring our own experiences to our examination. By revealing our own experiences, we shared in the vulnerability of the other storytellers.

Transformative Inquiry. We were committed to a process that would: (1) show respect for the storytellers, (2) be honest in our objectives to promote social action, (3) recognize the complexity of the inquiry (4) incorporate collaboration and accountability, and (5) provide for a transparency of goals and methods and motives. We therefore used a transformative inquiry in framing the dialogs.

Respect for storytellers. In an effort to show great respect for the storytellers, we have encouraged feedback as we assembled the final film and made changes in order to meet concerns of the storytellers
Incorporation of non-linear and non-verbal communication. In designing the project and in engaging in the dialogs, we attempted to employ verbal and non-verbal, as well as linear and non-linear, methods of elicitation and presentation.

Contemplative listening and knowledge of community. Within the dialogs, we employed an approach to increase the opportunity for comptemplation by the storyteller, listener and viewer of the film. We provide the space for the listener and viewer to examine the stories in their own contexts, with their own communities.
Reflective inquiry. Throughout the process, we paused for reflection. We engaged in discussions with the storytellers, ourselves and other researchers about the difficulty in maintaining a justice orientation in research. We also found that maintaining the written blog provided us with insight as to the challenge of maintaining our philosophical objectives in our research.

SELECTED RESOURCES
Atkinson, J. (2002). Trauma Trails: Recreating Songlines. Victoria: Spinfex.
Behar, R. (1996). The Vulnerable Observer. Boston, Mass: Beacon Press.
Mary Margaret Fonnow and Judith A. Cook. (1991). Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Smith, L. T. (2007). Decolonizing Methodologies. New York: St. Martin.
Zehr, H. (1998). Us and Them: a Photographer Looks at Police Pictures. Contemporary Justice Review, Vol. 1 pp. 377-385.

INTERNET RESOURCES
Center for Justice and Peace, Eastern Mennonite University: emu.edu/cjp
Pillars of Justice-Audit Trail and Blog: architectureandjustice.blogspot.com
Paulette Moore: paulettefilms.com
Brenda Waugh: brendawaugh.com