You have probably already read some of the messages I sent to the list
in the last couple of days. However, I still have not introduced myself
properly, so that is want I am trying to do with this message.
I am a PhD student at Reading (1st yr.), in the Community Studies Dept.,
and I am trying to explore the experiences of disabled women (probably
students only, but have not decided yet) in Higher Education from a
feminist perspective. My supervisor uses pcp in her work, and she
introduced me to it, and since then (a few months) I have been 'hooked'
:-). I have been to the EPCA conference in Reading and met many
interesting people who have given me lots of food for thought for my own
research project, if you are out there I am really grateful, it has been
a great week! My background, however, is NOT in psychology, counselling,
therapy, etc.. My first degree is in linguistics (University of Rome,
Italy), and I have a PgDip in Deaf Studies (Univ. of Reading),
nevertheless, I find Kelly's theory fascinating ( even if he talks about
men as in humankind, it's not his fault really, he was a man of his time
:-). My research interests, apart from the one mentioned above, are
varied: feminism (especially Luce Irigaray), equality, bilingual
education of Deaf children, identities (this one stimulated by EPCA '96),
use of narratives in research and a few others that are just hobbies.
Sometimes I can get very passionate about a discussion and 'flame'
easily, I hope you will forgive me, it is a trait of my personality that
has been made worse by cyberspace (it is easier to flame to a screen than
to a face). I would love to get in touch with anybody who is interested
in my PhD topic and/or would like to give me suggestions. One last
thought that I have been digesting lately about identities. Do people who
'belong' to various groups have a 'layered' identity, where one identity
is more 'core' than the other(s), or do they choose to ignore the others,
or is their identity completely unique? Therefore, is the experience of
oppression ( and its associated constructs) shared by different
people/groups or not? This may sound silly questions but are central to
my research, and I dare say on a personal level as well. Now I better
shut up, as I have already been longer than I intended. I look forward to
many fruitfull discussions on the list!
Alessandra Iantaffi
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