ABSTRACT
Memory work as a collaborative feminist research method originated with Frigga Haug and women colleagues in Germany in the late 1970s and early 1980s to research women's socialisation and sexualisation. Key to their work is the notion that women are agents in their own lives – their experiences are not solely determined by external forces. The method relies on the collective analysis of written individual memory or lived experience stories. It has become an established method of collecting and analysing data in the social sciences, primarily in relation to gender as constitutive of norms, behaviours, and relationships. Scholars have begun to use the method to analyse intersections between gender and ‘race’. In this chapter, we advocate for memory work as a collaborative intersectional feminist method that can be applied as a potentially empowering tool in multiple settings. We discuss feminist uses and potentials of memory work as a collaborative research method and as a pedagogical tool for feminist learning and interventions in the classroom and beyond. The discussion is based on our experiences of memory work in empirical research, in the classroom, and at a feminist research conference. The chapter also discusses potential pitfalls in its use as an intersectional feminist method.
