gina_r_snape | Entries tagged with dissertation

Holy crap.

I've taken out (or will have taken out) a stack of books from the library on social citizenship theory over the past few weeks. 19 to be exact. Plus there's one book available via the eReader. I may just have to read a book or two a week (depending on usefulness as I go along), if I'm to write anything before Christmas. Curious as to the list? I thought I'd post it here to keep track. Here goes:

*Ciitzenship and Social Class by T. H. Marshall
*Citizenship: a very short introduction by Richard Bellamy
*Citizenship today : the contemporary relevance of T.H. Marshall by Anthony Martin
*The three worlds of welfare capitalism by Goesta Esping-Anderson
*Which Equalities Matter? by Anne Phillips
*The disorder of women: democracy, feminism and political theory by Carole Pateman
*Multicultural Citizenship: a liberal theory of minority rights by Will Kymlicka
*Recent theories of citizenship in its relation to government by Carl Brinkmann
*Women, citizenship and difference by Pnina Werbner
*On the margins of citizenship: obligation, authority, and membership by Allison Carey
*A philosophical theory of citizenship: obligation, authority, and membership by Steven J Wulf
*Genealogies of citizenship: markets, statelessness, and the right to have rights by Margaret Somers
*Homelessness, citizenship, and identity by Kathleen Arnold
*A theory of citizenship by Herman Gunsteren
*The straight state: sexuality and citizenship in 20th Century America by margot Canaday
*The Sage handbook of sociology by Craig Calhoun
*Theorising heterosexuality: telling it straight by Diane Richardson
*The queen of America goes to Washington city: essays on sex and citizenship by Lauren Berlant
*The Civic Minimum: On the Rights and Obligations of Economic Citizenship by Stuart White

This doesn't include a half a dozen or so journal articles also on the subject of social citizenship, and one book my ex SF lent to me (she said I could borrow her books as long as needed). With such a mountain to climb, is it any wonder I find myself drawn to writing fanfic, looking at pretty pictures of Noel Fielding on Tumblr, writing about cooking and talking about nonsense on my LJ these days?

Current Mood: anxious

Note to self: Do NOT drink a frappuccino at 6:30pm while meeting with your dissertation advisor.

I pounced on her, as it were, with a deluge of panic and upset at the lack of attention from my committee. Thankfully, she's a loving, patient, supportive person (one reason why I chose her). And she said the preliminary work I've done is good. She's actually impressed that I identified a theory on my own "so quickly." We are going to meet after the Jewish new year to discuss the questions I've mined from the data set. For 5770 I meditated on finishing my comps, finding work/life balance, healing some emotional pain and addressing some aspects of my emotional life. I feel like I did 4 for 4. For sure, this year will be about harnessing the supports around me to finish my PhD and find an academic appointment or other position I'm not overqualified for like I am in my current one.

So, anyway, after all the running around (I went to two different libraries looking for books) and teh crazy, but really mostly from the coffee, I couldn't get to sleep last night. At 2am I found myself in dire straights. It probably didn't help that I spent my time "unwinding" by scrolling through Tumblr :coughIHATEYOU

soulsister101cough: reading Boosh fic and watching old episodes of The Addams Family.

I wonder how much my childhood love of the Addams Family influenced my goth leanings.

It took two glasses of wine and a benadryl to put me under. This, considering I once joked that I had virtual narcolepsy for my ability to nap anywhere at any time.

This weekend is the Howl Festival and a part of me is itching to dress up just to hang out in the park and feel like part of the event.

I've had two iced teas today, and I have to keep my energy up to teach tonight. The crash is gonna squash me like Satsuma LaRoux.

Current Mood: anxious

First, family. An extraordinary thing happened yesterday. I was having a delightful evening out at Zum Schneider and when I came home and checked the post, my father and stepmother sent me a check. A healthy check. I opened the envelope when my companion was in the loo, and I started crying I was so moved. When I rang my stepmother later that evening, she told me that my father has been putting some money aside for after I've completed my degree. But they had a chat over the summer and decided to send me a portion of that money now, because they knew I didn't teach this summer and didn't want me to stress over money for tuition, books, etc. She reiterated how proud and impressed they were.

Since I'd had two glasses of beer and several glasses of wine by that point, and was feeling bubbly from the company I'd just been keeping, I was particularly chatty. Per my friend's advice, I told exactly what this money meant to me. I also told her about my dissertation topic, about my creative process, and we just chatted like friends, to the tune of a 1 hr 43 min time stamp on my mobile.

Extraordinary.

Now, food! This is a copy-and-paste of the blog post for my CSA.

( Eggplant with tomato and garlicky topping )

Current Mood: indescribable

In the put a fire under one's own arse dept. I emailed one of my dissertation committee members to set up a discussion meeting.

I also popped by my Uni to take out some books I requested from the library.

While I was there, I chatted with the admin for our dept. and she asked me "Do you want me to put your name in yellow?"

Apparently, students in the doctoral program expected to graduate within the next academic calendar year are marked in yellow. Those who have defended and are confirmed as slated for graduation are marked in red. They do this because there are some students in my program who completed their comprehensive exams as long as five years ago and never defended their dissertation proposal (in some cases, not even formed a committee).

Well, I said yes. Now I have a color designation to live up to. A nice fiery yellow.

Current Mood: determined

So I took the day off work yesterday to get some things done. I slept late, went to University, and got some fresh air. Not bad, all told.

On Sunday evening I went to dinner with my friend CR and after a few drinks I think we may have had one of those ribald conversation that show up in "overheard in NY." Well, all I can say is, she makes a fine drinking companion. She's a new friend, and I do hope we'll hang out more. When I got home last night I saw the Noel Fielding videos I posted yesterday and between that and our conversation, had a very nice dream. Alcohol does funny, lovely things to my dreams.

But more importantly, yesterday I sat in the doctoral student lounge and got more done in two hours than I have in a month. It felt good. I also went to the library and nearly every book I needed was located at another branch of the school library. So now I have to wait for them to be transferred and go back to campus to pick them up. It's so annoying. I really should just utilize my library privileges at the other Universities where I've taught.

I browsed through the Encyclopedia of Homelessness while in the student lounge and discovered it has no entry specifically on LGBT homelessness. Only the section on youth had, oh, two sentences on it. And those specifically spoke about gay youth (yah, as if all LGBT homeless youth are gay and male and cisgendered, and as if saying 3 - 10% of homeless youth are gay is the end of the story). Talk about minimizing and invisibility. I also found, while running frequencies on my data set, that a full 50% of respondents had an income under $30k for 2007. I find this shocking and dismaying, and a clear sign that I'm going in the right direction with my thinking. I need to find out what were the mean and median incomes in the state of CA for that year. Anybody have an idea how I can find that out?

But anyway, last night I stumbled across what might be my new favorite band: The Federal Drug Administration. Their songs "Dalek Girlfriend", "Androgynoel" and "Twitter: 24hr Rolling Bull$hit" are LOLtastic. They have a few other good ones too, but those were the best both in terms of melody and humor.

The video for Androgynoel is ( particularly cute )

This week is once again going to be crazy busy for me. And it looks like we're going to have another heatwave. :( I don't want the summer to be over, but I can't wait for this summer to be over. Know what I mean?

Current Mood: busy

Do forgive if this entry is a bit tl;dr!

I am trying very hard not to get emotional about the fact that classes start in four weeks. I am teaching a Thursday night class, the first on September 2nd.

As a way to take constructive hold over my uneasiness, I've decided to take off work on Monday and spend a three-day weekend dissertation-focused. I plan to leave my house and go to University so I'm not distracted by cleaning, cats or cooking.

pennswoods has inspired me to wear my Hogwarts robes in the graduate lounge.

I had a dream last night that one of the members of my dissertation committee said I only need to write 13 pages for the theory chapter. I gleefully replied that I once wrote 13 pages in one day. I think this was my mind's way of saying "You can do this, so get to work!"

As I briefly mentioned before, I plan to use 'social citizenship' theory to examine how people who identify as transgender or gender-non-conforming are discriminated against in housing, employment and medical care. And while I need to do a LOT more reading, essentially social citizenship looks at the relationship between politics, the economy and culture to include or exclude people from the social fabric. How institutions dehumanize people considered Other, and, well, specifically I will pull apart categories within my data set to see who gets shafted the most. Furthermore, citizenship means conferring both rights and responsibilities to people as part of inclusion. This is the justification often used, for example, in denying certain classes of people who break the law the right to vote. I will propose that subsets of people in the TLC data set are expected to uphold responsibilities without being granted concomitant rights and recognitions, particularly for employment discrimination (hence it being a poverty issue), and is profoundly unjust.

Today at work I've been reading the full text decision on the Prop 8 trial. It's a powerful document that examines specious, hateful reasoning, passionate personal experiences of victimization, a critique of a system based on sex (both in terms of gender and sexual activity), and sexual orientation, academic credentials, thinly veiled (if at all) attempts to insert particular religious views into law, and the compelling role of the State to protect - rather than discriminate against - people. Of course, in my mind I'm applying concepts of citizenship theory. A few things struck me.

(There's a lot of cut-and-paste here with a few off-the cuff remarks. Not heavily academic).

First, this line in the argument by the proponents:

( Denial of marriage . . . )

The sheer coldness of hatred in this line makes me shudder, and I am grateful for every photographer, documentarian, Pride Parade, and ordinary folk who walk down the street hand-in-hand for the sheer fact of the power of visibility.

Second, I recall when this came up in the dailies:

( Read more... )

Counsel didn't know because, well, HATRED IS IRRATIONAL. How can one NOT snicker at such an admittance? Not to mention, there are legions of couples who are either child-free by choice, or who cannot have children for a variety of reasons. I'd like to see what would happen should the State deny a heterosexual couple the right to marry based on inability or intent to not have children.
( Read more... )

This part brought me chills:
the evidence presented at trial fatally undermines the premises underlying proponents’ proffered rationales for Proposition 8. An initiative measure adopted by the voters deserves great respect. The considered views and opinions of even the most highly qualified scholars and experts seldom outweigh the determinations of the voters. When challenged, however, the voters’ determinations must find at least some support in evidence. This is especially so when those determinations enact into law classifications of persons. Conjecture, speculation and fears are not enough.

THIS is why sound academic research is, for me, about activism. I particularly enjoyed how they cut down the credentials of David Blankenhorn

( Read more... )

Oh but gosh does this sound like my students who try to use Wikipedia as a primary reference.

( Further dressing down of said witness: )

To the extent Blankenhorn believes that same-sex marriage is both a cause and a symptom of deinstitutionalization, his opinion is tautological.

SING IT!

Conclusions of law included:
* Due Process
* Equal Protection
* The right to marry protects an individual's choice of marital partner regardless of gender
* Proposition 8 is unconstitutional because it denies plaintiffs a fundamental right without a legitimate (much less compelling) reason.

In other words, same-sex couples are humans deserving of the rights of other citizens. I can't help but wonder how this will impact DOMA, as I have no doubt this case may in fact find itself on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Current Mood: busy

~~Ok, people, I need your help this week! The first two items in my pick-up, I have no idea about them. Anyone? Anyone?~~

Thanks to a little help from my flist and my amazing powers of google-fu, I discovered that alache is the Spanish word for 'spurred anoda." It's used in soups and stews, and for medicinal purposes. Reading about it didn't make it any more appealing than it looks (spiky and hairy).

Papalos is also called Bolivian Cilantro and is used fresh in salsa and otherwise similarly to cilantro. It smells quite peppery.

Papalos
Alache
Parsley
Lettuce
Kirby cucumbers
Zucchini
Zucchini blossoms

Also, this week's Rob Brezsny horoscope mirrors my thoughts on what it's been like reading about citizenship theory:

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some of the biggest whales feed primarily on tiny organisms like protozoa, algae, and krill. They swim around with their mouths open, gulping seawater, using filtering structures in their upper jaws to sieve out the stuff they want to eat. Their strategy for getting a meal has resemblances to an approach you may benefit from using: sifting
through a lot of superfluous material to get the rich basics you seek. Discernment isn't the only skill you'll need; relaxed patience will be crucial, too.

Current Mood: busy

I am considering using a theory of citizenship for my dissertation. Does anyone on my F-list have recommendations for readings?

Current Mood: hot

Well, today was . . . interesting. I barely made it out the door for my continuing stomach ache and other ailments. But made it I did, and now I can go home and sleep.

Or read.

As I am beta reading a book chapter for a friend, on zombies, and quite excited about it too.

Soon there will be no rest for the weary, as I have tasks for my dissertation. My committee chair (her name is Cathy) gave me an outline to plug in dates. Curious? Here is the ( TASKS column )

Not all committee chairs bother with this sort of thing, but I think you can see how well organized she is, and how something like this is very supportive of staying focused and getting work done.

And I love how the last dissertation task is "Rent cap and gown" :-)

Current Mood: determined

ZOMG I might actually have a data set for my dissertation!*

One that personally compels me.

And one that is essentially looking for an academic to give it legitimized weight.

So I can help the community AND get my PhD.

And Somjen agreed to be my outside person if it works.

And she wants to set me up on a date with an acrobat.

And she was excited to meet another researcher!

And we shared gossip and war stories.

And . . .

And . . .

And . . .

ZOMG I'm FLYING right now, y'all.

*(

jaynatopia - you and Mila will forgive the bat$h1t crazy hyper excited ear assault from my post-meeting phone call, right?)

Current Mood: ecstatic

I don't know what's wrong with me today. I cannot seem to get going. I feel like I have lead running through my veins. My limbs are heavy and my concentration is off. :( I can't wait for the winter to be over.

Last night I went with some friends to a talk at the Tenement Museum called Who Will Write our History? with a researcher named Samuel Kassow. It was wonderful. He talked about an act of jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto where a team of people catalogued statements and essays about the lives of the people there. Then years later the documents (about half of them) were excavated. It made me think anew about the notion of resistance, and about the confluence of history, qualitative research and archeology. What stories are hidden in the dirt, covered by time. That people gathered words and documents as time capsules of hope in the middle of hell, and stuck to historical and sociological methods in the process is just amazing to me.

The author answered questions at the end and my friend D asked how come so few people seem to know about this man Emanuel Ringelblum and his clandestine scholarly organization called the Oyneg Shabes. He said history frequently gets left out of teachings, and stories of everyday life often go uninterested until it's lost and a new generation grow curious about what life was like for a people in a particular place and time.

I am going to try and hold onto that answer as I work towards my dissertation. In social work we sometimes make commodities of people's stories. In my job, a psychosocial assessment becomes part of a package in the service of getting somebody housed. A cog in a wheel. A life distilled into "where were you, how did you get here, and what services do you need?" Then once the person is housed, the papers are filed and destroyed after 5 years, no longer useful for the purpose it was created. Will anyone know or care, in 60 years, about the small disjointed community of poor New Yorkers who passed through our doors? Maybe it's not as profound as the systematic mass murder of millions of people. But I hope my own research will act as a kind of resistance to the commodification of people, and be a conduit for social change in everyday people's lives.