A Raining Afternoon Growing Younger and Wiser

Christine Ballengee Morris

Christine Ballengee Morris The Ohio State University

Abstract

In this narrative inquiry, the lived experience comes from both a virtual space (Second Life) and real life. The avatar (Rain) and the maker (Christine) explore identity construction, aesthetics, and notions of aging and appearance. This research is expressed in an arts-based format, a play, so that the process of internal dialogue is revealed through two characters and serves as an example of valuing the multiple voices that are within each of us. This play investigates the nature of societal influence and its impact on oneâ€™s identity, recognizing the facets and roles in all of us, and transformative power. This type of presentation and self-exploration serves as an example for epistemological and ontological positioning and curriculum possibilities.

Author Biography

Christine Ballengee Morris, The Ohio State University

Christine Ballengee Morris is an associate professor at The Ohio State University (OSU). She has taught undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at OSU since 1995, as well as served as the founding director of the Multicultural Center at OSU. In this position, she developed new offices, programming, and collaborative practices for the university that bridged Student Affairs with Academic Affairs. She serves as the Art Education Graduate Studies Chair and coordinator of American Indian Studies at OSU. She has served the art education profession as president of the United States Society of Education through Art, and as member of several editorial boards.

Ballengee Morrisâ€™s research examines social justice, social reconstructivism, and postcolonialism as they relate to arts policy, curricula development, integrated curriculum, pedagogy, and identity development. She co-wrote a book, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Art Education in High School, which was published by the National Art Education Association (2006). Dr. Ballengee Morrisâ€™s teaching experiences include fourteen years in the public school system, artist-in-residencies in the public schools, and international teaching in Chile, Brazil, Australia, and Ireland. She is trained to lead social justice workshops and mediation. She is the recipient of the 2007 Ziegfeld Award and the 2006 J. Eugene Grigsby, Jr. Award for her commitment to diversity; Ohio State Universityâ€”Newark Research and Service Awards; NAACP Licking County, Ohio, Native American Women Leadership Award (2002); and Traditional Master of Flatfoot Dancing, Augusta Heritage, West Virginia.

Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to the author at Morris.390@osu.edu