This presentation share strategies used by the Critically Creative Reading and Writing Collective (CCRWC), a reading group members of which share interest in creative arts research methods and methodologies, particularly for researching complex socio-political and ethical challenges including those of privilege and marginalisation, ecological sustainability, and more. Like most reading groups, we meet on a regular basis to discuss a set journal article or scholarly book chapter. Our point of difference is that, in addition to discussion of key themes and concepts from the set text, each meeting also involves a set of creative exercises such as writing or sketching in response to set prompts and/or deploying prescribed artistic processes and constraints. We also co-author together using collaborative artistic processes. Our approach is informed by theories of cognition that describe how processes of poetry, story, and art making open modes of thinking beyond those typically associated with more standard research methods and discourses. We are also informed and inspired by the creative critical movement, fictocriticism, and writing-as-inquiry, among other praxes that articulate creative with critical processes. Our presentation begins with an overview of how these ideas support our ways of working, then provides examples of activities we have used in our reading group meetings and co-authoring collaborations. By sharing examples of our processes, we aim to open dialogues about the benefits creative approaches to reading, writing, and collaboration can bring across diverse scholarly contexts, and the scope for network building among creative researchers across differing disciplines and locales.
