Material Entanglements - Curating a Life

In her Sherman Early Childhood Learning Series lecture at the Faculty of Education, UNB, Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Kyo Maclear said, "Whatever you're writing will curate your life." Her words resonate with me as I sit at my desk this morning, and as I recall different kinds of writing lives. From childhood journals and long hand university exams to social media posts and policies. Every kind of writing curates my life differently. What about you, Reader? How does your writing curate your life? To me, even in this digital age, research means a life curated by hard copies of other people's papers and books. Ink-soaked, coffee-soaked, wrinkled, crinkled, dog-eared, cat-furred, bought, borrowed, layered, piled high, high-lighted, post-it'ed papers and books. Research means reading thousands of years worth of other people's research, materially entangled within different times and places. The web of research graduate students join is almost inarticulable. Not to mention the desks, chairs, bi/tri-focals, wires, wifi, monitors, mice that prop up research and writing.... chipped pottery, cats and yarn, in my case... we each have our own things we like to write with. What are the research-writing-material entanglements that curate your life?