”Trying to keep up”: Intersections of identity, space, time and rhythm in women student carer auto/biographical accounts

Geographies of Care and Caring is a burgeoning area of geographical thought, although auto/biographical caring accounts have been less explored. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with women students (from different generations) who are in education with a range of caring responsibilities (‘student carers’), this chapter explores how auto/biographies are laden with spatial and temporal rhythms. Drawing upon theorisations of time and rhythm (Lefebvre, 2013, Elden, 2004), and feminist work exploring the gendered emotional and temporal dynamics of care (Hochschild, 1989; Maher 2009; Rogers and Weller, 2013) we explore how participants negotiate complex, shifting and multiply-intersecting rhythms across space and time to undertake care and construct identities as student and carer. In doing so, we consider the benefits of incorporating spatial and temporal rhythms within auto/biographical accounts.