Elena Castro and Kyra Conners, “The ART of Infertility: Diversifying Expressions of Loss through Art & Creativity”
Mentor: Maria Novotny, English
The ART of Infertility’s mission is to break the silence around the experiences of infertility, offering art and storytelling as therapeutic heuristics to capture and express the realities, pains, and joys of infertility for all people. Infertility is the result of a disease (an interruption, cessation, or disorder of body functions, systems, or organs) of the male or female reproductive tract which prevents the conception of a child or the ability to carry a pregnancy to delivery. The purpose of this research is to support the organization’s mission to create a diverse arts-based curriculum to improve communication about infertility. Using a feminist and queer intersectional methodology, this research project seeks to identify patients who are using art and creativity to represent diverse infertility experiences. The main sources used to attain these critical experiences are personal blogs, art, and writing pieces from those that have felt the realities, pains, and joys of infertility. Research findings advocate that arts-based methods can support fertility patients as they cope with the mental, physical, and emotional struggles of building their family. Taking an intersectional approach invites marginalized communities to speak on their experiences and create a space that is inclusive of their infertility journey. Infertility representation must expand beyond the normalized ‘white, middle-class’ representation it has taken on over the years. With that expansion, we can expect to see a positive impact on the inclusion of all people in the conversation and education surrounding the journey that is, infertility.
My name is Kyra Conners and I am a third-year Social Work major, and am also working towards my Women and Gender studies minor as well as an LGBTQ+ studies certificate. I started working with the ART of Infertility in the Fall of 2020 through Service-Learning in one of my social work classes, and have continued to work with them since. I have a passion for comprehensive sex education and the well-being of others. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to take part in the Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Hello I am Elena Castro and I am also in my third year working towards a degree in Social Work. I started working with Professor Novotny last semester as well through volunteer hours and became very interested in her work and projects. One of the only issues I had with the researched I did while volunteering was finding a lack of diverse stories and voices on this topic which is why I was very happy to work on this project with them this semester to diversify and make more the conversation of infertility more inclusive.