Lived Experience

Scholarly Definition

A starting point within people’s awareness through their bodily senses as a basis to study the coordination and their personal and professional lives. This starting point explicitly values their embodied knowledge as an alternative to external authority.

Artistic Statement

Sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing are the ways we attempt to understand the world. It is only natural that sociologists should find these senses and these “lived experiences” as valuable tools by which to further understand society and the individuals who constitute it. This drawing shows a sociologist writing out data.