academentia |
Academentia (n): normal state of persons in academia, |
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graduate essays (1997-1999) MA research paper: women and ezines (1998) feminist theory reading notes (2000) measuring women's work in IT (2003) |
"When a man is educated, an individual is educated; when a woman is educated, a family and a country are educated." |
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Two different people, in two different contexts, have actually said to me, "Feminism is harder than physics." Aside from the coolness of that coincidence, I kind of like that idea. It certainly sustains me in my darkest hour to know that some physicist out there finds the mysteries of wave-particle dualities a snap but cringes at the thought of debating pay equity. People sometimes say that academics live in an ivory tower and are divorced from reality, whatever that is. This may be true for some, but we are people like everyone else: we go to the bathroom, grocery shop, fall in love, and take our garbage out on garbage day. In my opinion it is important for academics never to lose sight of why we do this job: to contribute, in some way, to the betterment of humanity. It's just that for most of us bookworms, the betterment of humanity involves studying the mating habits of slime mold, or a longitudinal model of economic cycles. Though I like a hot slutty set of stats as much as the next red-blooded grrl, I do primarily qualitative research. For some people that means analyzing texts. For me it mostly means going out and talking to people. It gives me an excuse to be nosy. I believe in doing research that begins from people's real lives, not what we imagine their lives should be. I always begin from the question: what are women doing? What conditions are shaping their lives? This is an important stance because it means I don't create theories that are divorced from actual people. On the other hand, creating theory can be fun. It's enjoyable to play with ideas and see what they can do. Theory is your friend! It helps you make sense of the world around you. |
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My Ph.D. is in Women's Studies. Not gender studies, which is what some universities call it to sanitize its political message. Women's Studies. That means I study women. Gender is part of it—it has to be—but it's not all of it. Studying women is only part of the picture. The other purpose of Women's Studies is unabashedly political: Women's Studies scholars believe that traditionally, half of the human race (technically, 52% if you want to get picky, or even more if you want to throw in stuff like race and class) has been ignored as both scholars and subjects of research, and we want to right the balance. I've had people—okay, men—ask me what could possibly be interesting about women. My usual response is that if they have to ask, they probably a) don't have a girlfriend/wife or b) their girlfriend/wife is probably thinking of dumping them because said male isn't at all interested in them. Or, people will say, "What about men's studies?" Well, aside from much of mainstream scholarshp being men's studies already, I think it's a good question, and many men could stand to rigorously analyze the things that make up their experiences and identities. Feminist researchers have provided many theoretical tools for critiquing the constraining social relations of femininity; perhaps it's time for men to turn the self-analysis lens on themselves and their ideals. Lots of people think Women's Studies is full of scary people. Or worse, feminists. *cackle* On the first day of Intro to WMST, undergrads have a look like deer in the headlights, waiting for us to morph into hideous she-beasts, sprouting fur and claws, and undermining the foundations of heteronormative patriarchal society. Okay, well, the last part is true. At the end of the year most folks are pretty happy they took the course. They feel like they've found out a lot more about themselves, their experiences, and their relationships. They get to talk about stuff that society tells them doesn't matter, or about stuff they never thought they'd be brave enough to vocalize. And they realize they have a lot more choices than they thought to live their lives in the way that works best for them. This isn't just true for WMST majors, either. Other non-majors, even (gasp) men enjoy WMST courses and get lots out of them. My biggest coup thus far has been male business majors telling me that my course was one of their favourites. I must be doing something right. Either that or my humourous classroom anecdotes about automatic toilets are keeping them interested. I had a lot more written here about how feminism is a very complex, diverse field with scholarship which has significantly influenced every discipline. But eventually I started to feel like I was doing a lot more defending the field and a lot less of what I should be doing, which is providing quasi-interesting and useful information. I have a few areas of specialization in the field. The primary one is women's work in technology, which divides nicely into women and technology and women and work. I started out studying women's online zines. At that time, the web was a relatively new form of media, and women were a small minority of users. Now, thankfully, things are much more democratic. For my Ph.D. dissertation on DigitalEve, I studied women who worked in the IT (information technology) field. I like studying work because it's where you get to see all the injustices of society writ large in very real ways. Work is about putting food on the table, and what could be more real-life than that? Currently I am working on the development of a HUGE database about gender and work. It's not available for public use yet, but when it is, you'll be able to have a look at it if you're using the ISP of a university in Canada. For the 2003 Learneds, I presented a paper on how to measure women's work in IT. This was aimed at other researchers who might be starting an analysis in this field, to let them know what kinds of indicators are available in surveys from Statistics Canada, or what dimensions they might combine in their study. And, like, ohmigawd, ohmigawd, whee! My first book, Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology, was published in October 2004 from Sumach Press. You can order it from Chapters or straight from the publisher. You want one! Your grandmother wants one! Your thirty-eight second cousins would love a copy or three as well. Make me a bestselling author and help me get on Oprah, please please. It's not as long and boring as my PhD dissertation, I swear. 
I also specialize in feminist theory, epistemology, and methodology. This is a fancy way of asking how we know what we think we know. The way we ask the questions, and the questions we think are important to ask, can determine the outcome of what the answer is. You can read my notes on many works of feminist theory here. Finally, I am beginning to do research in the area which might be called transgender, although the term is a bit contested. Trans-Health was created by me and two other people to address the health and fitness needs of trans people, and there is a wide variety of articles that attempt to cover the spectrum of trans experiences. One thing that feminists thought they "knew" when the movement began was just who a woman was. Now we are learning that our simple definitions don't reflect the reality of many, many people whose psychic gender doesn't perfectly match their external biological sex. I am the editor of a collection titled Transforming Feminisms, forthcoming Fall 2006 from Sumach Press. Interested in Women's Studies as a discipline? Check out this list of things you can do with a major in the field. The cool thing about it is that it can be combined with everything. Do you like medicine? Then specialize in women's health. Do you like economics? Then do research on women's economic position. Do you like law? Then specialize in family law or sexual assault. Do you like social work? Then specialize in counseling women. And so forth. Oh yes, and boys can do Women's Studies... I have known several male students who majored in WMST, and a couple of male professors too! |
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Philosophia (n): "the wisdom formulated by women;
love for the wisdom of women; desire and passion for understanding: an intellectual urge toward love of life..." |