Different Together: A Poetic Reading of Arts-Inspired Creations as Embodied Explorations of Social Cohesion

We, a diverse group of South African academics, study embodied reflexivity through poetry, and this article is an account of poetic inquiry inspired by assemblages created by the participants in a symposium, Object Inquiry for Social Cohesion in Public Higher Education. As the symposium’s cofacilitators, we wondered how and what we might learn from reading the assemblages poetically as embodied explorations of social cohesion. We describe the symposium before demonstrating how we used poetry to represent, analyze, and synthesize our responses to the assemblages. Through the presentation of dialog pieces derived from our discussions, we articulate the collective growth and development of our understanding. Then, we share a final poem, which encapsulates our learning. Finally, we consider how this poetic study could help us and others in higher education seeking to understand and strengthen social cohesion and social justice.