Tapestry of Tears: An Autoethnography of Leadership, Personal Transformation, and Music Therapy in Humanitarian Aid in Bosnia Herzegovina

Authors

Alpha M. Woodward, Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and ChangeFollow

Streaming Media

Images

Above: Author's Supplemental Video, Tapestry of Tears. See the bottom of this page for six supplemental PDF files that document the author's blog posts.

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Alpha M. Woodward, PhD, is a 2015 graduate of the PhD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.

Alpha M. Woodward, Ph.D. [center] at her Dissertation Defense with Committee Member, Laurien Alexandre, Ph.D. [left] and her Committee Chair, Carolyn Kenny, Ph.D. [right].

Dissertation Committee

• Carolyn Kenny, Ph.D., Chair
• Laurien Alexandre, Ph.D. Committee Member
• Lars Ole Bonde, Ph.D. Committee Member
• Susan Hadley, Ph.D., External Reader

Keywords

Bosnia, Herzegovinia, music therapy, leadership, humanitarian aid, war, atrocities, post-conflict societies, change, autoethnography, phenomenology, arts therapies

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

In the fall of 2003 I was invited to lead a team of music therapists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a country that had been recently savaged by two brutal inter-ethnic wars. The program operated out of the Pavarotti Music Centre on the East side of Mostar, a divided city in the southwest region of BiH. My journey over the next four years was epically challenged by my immersion into the complexities of post-conflict recovery, and the cultural confusion that followed the atrocities of those wars. Transformation and change not only characterized the world in which I worked, but also paralleled internal processes proceeding silently within me. As a music therapist I have always worked within a framework of cultural constancy. In post-conflict societies, we become involved in a colossal moving fray of change. This dissertation is an autoethnography that uses heartfelt, reflective writing with the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of my identity as a leader, as a music therapist, and as a cultural being in these sometimes difficult, but life-enhancing, four years. Together with academic perspectives and performative writing techniques, it explores a trail of thematic material that emerged during a confusing, ambiguous repatriation period in the years following my time in Bosnia. The autoethnography, an evocative expression of phenomenological research, is a conversation with "self" and with distant others who inhabit a time frame in the past, and thus informs an emergent narrative that carves its own path throughout the eight chapters. Ultimately, the dissertation aims toward a deeper understanding of my own culpability as a leader of a small multi-ethnic team in Mostar, BiH, and the implications this may have for arts-based fieldwork practice in post conflict regions. This dissertation is accompanied by seven supplemental files: 1 Mp4 video and 6 blog post pdf files. The electronic version of this Dissertation is at Ohiolink ETD Center, http://etd.ohiolink.edu and AURA http://aura.antioch.edu/

Comments

Alpha M. Woodward, Ph.D.

Dr. Alpha Woodward is a certified music therapist (MTA) in Canada and a Fellow of the Association of Music and Imagery. She has taught MA level music therapy in Montreal, and served as program director in Limerick, Ireland, Pennsylvania and Iowa. Prior to her teaching career she served as the professional practice leader at Providence Health Care in Vancouver, B.C. until she left Canada to work with children and youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in January, 2004. Her published works for music therapy in humanitarian services in post conflict regions, and her doctoral dissertation, are based in lived experiences as the Head of Music Therapy at the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, BiH when the country was recovering from the vicious wars of 1990 - 1995. Her arts-based, autoethnographic research ‘Tapestry of Tears’, was a 'close encounter of the self' as she peered into her own transformational experiences working in a war-affected region. She is currently teaching music therapy courses at Capilano University in North Vancouver, B.C.

- See more at: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3991-6270#sthash.J2tyFM3z.dpuf

Recommended Citation

Woodward, A. M. (2015). Tapestry of Tears: An Autoethnography of Leadership, Personal Transformation, and Music Therapy in Humanitarian Aid in Bosnia Herzegovina. https://aura.antioch.edu/etds/192