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Abstract
In this post-qualitative dissertation using Deleuzoguattarian theories, I examine the ensembles of life created by 11 Nebraskan women, all family history genealogists, in the study of their ancestors. The dissertation is guided by three research questions: (1) How does the assemblage enable an ensemble of life? (2) What is the work of assemblage in an object-interview study? (3) What is the work of the ensemble of life in this study? During data collection, objects (e.g., documents, photographs, and other artifacts) and ancestors lives formed an assemblage that enabled the ensemble of life, a concept I invented to meet the needs of my study. The ensemble of life is an ensemble of a persons trajectoriesor linesthat are formed by the objects-subjects-events (i.e., the objects, people, and actions) in her life, the sensations associated with those objects-subjects-events, and the virtual potential of those objects-subjects-events. Those lines are also animated by the fold and a life, and they are open and connectable to other ensembles of life. The study itself was an assemblage that contained a territory and a collective assemblage of enunciation. The territory consisted of the site of the study, the studys timeline, the participants, and a stuttering methodology, and the collective assemblage of enunciation was formed by the object-interview and data. The methodology that guided this post-qualitative dissertation was a stuttering methodology that is a folding and unstable methodology within/outside of poststructural theories and qualitative methodology. A stuttering methodology guided the object-interviews, conversations in which subjects (participants, ancestors, and I) are entangled with objects, which was also the primary method of data collection. Data are conceptualized as a supple and moving ontology that keeps meaning in play. The work of the ensemble of life is never-ending. The ensemble of life happened in my data, it happened in my writing, it is happening now, and will continue to happen. In this way, I continue to make, remake, and unmake the ensemble of life with data from the study.