References

This bibliography contains 56 sources spanning sociology, trauma studies, feminist theory, contemplative practice, visual methodology, organisational behaviour, philosophy, Indigenous research methodologies, and human rights. It serves as the scholarly foundation for the Alonetude project and the theoretical development of the original concept of alonetude — the expansive, intentional, and embodied practice of being fully present to oneself.

Sources marked with a 🔗 link are available online. Future research directions are noted at the close of this page.

A

  • Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press.
  • Azoulay, A. (2008). The civil contract of photography (R. Mazali & R. Danieli, Trans.). Zone Books.

B

  • Bachelard, G. (1964). The poetics of space (M. Jolas, Trans.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1958)
  • Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
  • Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel optimism. Duke University Press.
  • Boss, P. (1999). Ambiguous loss: Learning to live with unresolved grief. Harvard University Press.
  • Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection: Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are. Hazelden Publishing.

C

  • Cacioppo, J. T., & Patrick, W. (2008). Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. W. W. Norton.
  • Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). Routledge.
  • Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.

E

  • Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999

F

  • Faragher, J. M. (2005). A great and noble scheme: The tragic story of the expulsion of the French Acadians from their American homeland. W. W. Norton.
  • Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon Books. (Original work published 1975)
  • Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Herder and Herder. (Original work published 1968)
  • Freyd, J. J. (2008). Betrayal trauma. In G. Reyes, J. D. Elhai, & J. D. Ford (Eds.), The encyclopedia of psychological trauma (pp. 76–77). John Wiley & Sons.
  • Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.

G

  • Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301
  • García Márquez, G. (2002). Vivir para contarla. Mondadori.
  • Greenspan, M. (2003). Healing through the dark emotions: The wisdom of grief, fear, and despair. Shambhala Publications.

H

  • Han, B.-C. (2015). The burnout society (E. Butler, Trans.). Stanford University Press. (Original work published 2010)
  • Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066
  • Hersey, T. (2022). Rest is resistance: A manifesto. Little, Brown Spark.
  • Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
  • hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory: From margin to center. South End Press.

K

  • Kaplan, R., & Kaplan, S. (1989). The experience of nature: A psychological perspective. Cambridge University Press.
  • Karr, A., & Wood, M. (2011). The practice of contemplative photography: Seeing the world with fresh eyes. Shambhala Publications.

L

  • Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
  • Leavy, P. (2017). Research design: Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. Guilford Press.
  • Levine, P. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.
  • Long, C. R., & Averill, J. R. (2003). Solitude: An exploration of benefits of being alone. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 33(1), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00204
  • Lorde, A. (1988). A burst of light: Essays. Firebrand Books.
  • Lorey, I. (2015). State of insecurity: Government of the precarious (A. Derieg, Trans.). Verso.

M

  • Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1945)

N

  • Nash, R. J. (2004). Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative. Teachers College Press.
  • Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard University Press.
  • Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education (2nd ed.). University of California Press.

P

  • Paul, D. N. (2006). We were not the savages: Collision between European and Native American civilizations (3rd ed.). Fernwood Publishing.
  • Pink, S. (2013). Doing sensory ethnography (2nd ed.). SAGE.
  • Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton.

R

  • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

S

  • Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic capitalism and the new economy: Markets, state, and higher education. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Storr, A. (1988). Solitude: A return to the self. Free Press.

T

  • Tillich, P. (1963). The eternal now. Scribner.
  • Tucker, A. (2026). Alonetude: 30 days by the sea, the third shore [Creative master's thesis]. Thompson Rivers University.
  • Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Aldine.

U

V

  • Vaillant, G. E. (2012). Triumphs of experience: The men of the Harvard Grant Study. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
  • van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage (M. B. Vizedom & G. L. Caffee, Trans.). University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1909)

W

  • Waldinger, R. J., & Schulz, M. S. (2023). The good life: Lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness. Simon & Schuster.
  • Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education and Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819702400309
  • Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood Publishing.
  • Winnicott, D. W. (1958). The capacity to be alone. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 39, 416–420.

Future Research Directions

This project opens several lines of inquiry that I hope to pursue, and that I invite other researchers to take up. These are offered as provisional directions, grounded in what the thirty days of field inquiry surfaced.

  • Alonetude across the lifespan. How does the capacity for intentional solitude shift across developmental stages? What conditions support its cultivation in adolescence, mid-life, and late life?
  • Alonetude and gender. Women’s access to alonetude is shaped by caregiving labour, domestic expectation, and internalised performance. A feminist inquiry into gendered barriers to intentional solitude is warranted.
  • Institutional recovery and somatic healing. What does recovery from institutional harm look like somatically? This project documented one trajectory; comparative and longitudinal study would deepen the framework.
  • Precarious academic labour and psychological safety. The link between sessional employment structures and psychological harm in higher education requires systematic empirical attention, particularly in the Canadian context.
  • Alonetude as pedagogy. Can alonetude be taught? What pedagogical structures might support students and educators in developing a sustainable relationship with solitude and presence?
  • Place-based inquiry and the somatic archive. Further work using slow, place-anchored somatic methods — particularly in desert, coastal, and transitional ecologies — could extend the sensory ethnography developed here.
  • Cross-cultural dimensions of alonetude. How is the concept of intentional, expansive solitude understood and practised across different cultural traditions? Indigenous, East Asian, and contemplative traditions offer rich comparative frameworks.
  • Mi'kmaq-Acadian historical scholarship. My own DNA ancestry raised questions about the Mi'kmaq-Acadian relationship before and after the Grand Dérangement that I am unqualified to answer but hope to explore through appropriate collaboration with Mi'kmaq scholars and communities.

This bibliography will be updated as the project develops. If you are a researcher working in any of these areas and wish to be in contact, please use the blog's contact page.