oaRefrains for inquiring otherwise

This article explores how students experiment with unconventional and subversive research approaches in their BA theses. I draw on an (auto-) ethnographic case study of the Inquiry Otherwise Track (IOT): an extracurricular thesis programme I co-organised at Erasmus University College Rotterdam in 2023, which aimed to help students navigate the implications of feminist, decolonial, and artistic considerations in their graduation research. Highlighting the way my students and I navigated the tensions we encountered between established conceptions of ‘proper academic research’ and our open-ended, critical, and creative endeavours, this paper draws out three refrains that gave us the courage to face those tensions head-on: (1) focus on the intention that moves you, (2) make thought-feeling confluence, and (3) attend to what refusal opens up. I offer these refrains as useful pedagogical tools that could allow others to further develop and practice experimental, decolonial, and feminist inquiry.