I’ve recently been thinking out loud about trauma and find myself using the term ‘trauma responses’. It’s a shorthand term I’ve developed over decades and so deserves defining for those not living in my head. It turns out that childhood abuse and trauma does nasty shit to the growing brain. I’m writing to you from just such a brain.…More
Author Archives: Angela
Angela J Williams, PhD, is a writer, illustrator and story teller from Wollongong, Australia.
She is the author of Snakes and Ladders: a memoir and host of the Deboning Power Podcast.
A writer, thinker and yeller, Angela Williams is mildly notorious for seeing problems and pointing them out. She’s tussled with Fred Nile in the Sydney Morning Herald, taken academia to task in the Guardian’s Anonymous Academic, gone to Crikey about the treatment of mentally ill women in prison, and most recently blown the whistle on dangerous risks in her (former) charity workplace. Angela does one thing really well – find problems and yell about them.
Self as subject: the peculiar pickle of autobiographical higher degree research
Paper presented at the University of Newcastle Creative Arts Research Symposium, Newcastle, Australia, 9 June, 2016. I do not condone the use of memoir, surveillance, or any other discourse altering substances. Writing a memoir involves taking one’s life and smearing it onto the page. When you craft a memoir, it is inevitably a personal experience…More
What the hell was I thinking?!: poking my publications list with a sharp stick
Obviously I didn’t get that great job I was going for. It’s been a big process – emotions-wise – and a very steep emotional learning curve. I’ve cycled through all the stages of grief, because that’s what an emotionally intelligent human being does. Somewhere in there I had a conversation (on the back of the…More
‘Can we chat?’: A discursive consideration of conversations between casual and permanent academics
‘Can we chat?’ ‘Yeah, sure, anytime’ is what the casual academic is meant to say when facing this question from a permanent academic: particularly one who has employed them in the past. ‘Yeah, sure’ is probably the safest answer for a casual to give to almost any request from The Faculty. You know, if they…More
Self Portraits: The ‘Rearticulating’ years (1999-2004)
Warning – lots of pictures! Read on wifi! 1999 was right after my last heroin bust. You can read the excerpt from Snakes and Ladders here. It was a pretty dodgy time to be Angela J Williams. Hadn’t worked out yet that my problem was heroin, but needles. Slipped and fell in a pretty big puddle…More
Poor timing is sometimes the best timing
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931 I joined another writing group since I’m now back in Wollongong and it’s a lot more like what I’m looking for. It’s a high output academic writing group based on the idea of writing for ten minutes a day. I joined it at maybe the worst possible time.…More
Varuna 2016 Day 6
This was my office this morning This was my office this afternoon Dinner last night: Sheila’s CoqAVin with trimmings. Dessert: Plums and pears stewed in red wine. We ate it too quick for pics. Sorry-not-sorry. Current word count: 62901 Number of chapters: 44– 23 full drafts and 9 that need new stuff and 12 that need to go from…More
Varuna 2016 Day 5
This was my office today Dinner last night: Sheila’s spinach and feta pie, greek salad and bread. Dessert: not-quite Tiramisu Current word count: 58 075 Number of chapters: 25 – 19 full drafts and 6 that need new stuff. Holy crap balls, batdudes. Biggest achievement: Getting through a whole part in one morning. It might have been mostly…More
Angela J Williams 