Brave space-making as engaged communication scholarship: witnessing, disrupting, and co-creating anew through storytelling
Abstract
In this essay, we bring to the forefront the aesthetic, socio-material, and embodied narrative acts central to brave space-making: witnessing, disrupting, and co-creating anew. We also illustrate the viability of brave space-making as engaged communication fieldwork and scholarship understood broadly as university and community collaborations that develop actionable knowledge in response to salient social concerns. In our finest moments and alongside community partners, we witness what is, disrupt what has been assumed and/or dismissed, and co-create anew. Importantly, brave space-making has transformed not only our fieldwork but the very texture of our humanity, teaching us how to listen humbly as we dwell with one another. In this way, engaged communication scholarship emerges as a shared becoming as we learn and unlearn together.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Public Relations and Crisis Communication
Communication in Education and Healthcare
Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Change
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of Applied Communication Research
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 224–245
- Publication date
- 4 March 2026
- Language
- EN