q-sputnik

I have identified the blogs I will be looking at, i have moved from mental health to illness/disability in general. I have listed these blogs under the ‘dissertation’ blogroll category and am now on my way to letting the authors know that I will be looking at their blogs as a researcher.

I haven’t prepared my outline yet which should be in in two weeks so a lot will change during this time.

Meanwhile, summer has settled in Brighton, naked people strech on the grass outside my window so I decided the view and sound were too upsetting for me and moved my desk to another room. While doing that I reflected on my study patterns and habits-I can’t be disturbed, I can’t listen to music while studying, i can’t really study in public spaces, noises can break my nerves completely- and I thought about definitions -where does pathology start and where does idiosyncracy end and where in this continuum is identity?

reading definitions of all kinds of conditions, from vaginitis to depression, from flu to arthritis can be like reading a horoscope: i can find a little bit of me in everything and tend to believe it. which is funny if you think of it as pleasure derived through identification.

The undergraduate studies programe for subjects of gender and equality ‘Gender in Social Sciences’, Sociology Department, University of Crete is having a very interesting workshop. To contact

either call (0030)2831 077485 Fax: 2831 077467 E-mail: gender@social.soc.uoc.gr

URL: http://www.soc.uoc.gr/gender

Here is the announcement:

‘WORKSHOP
Methods of Studying Gender and Political Participation
May 30-31, 2008
University of Crete -Rethymno
The traditional research of the Feminist Movement in general, and Gender and Politics in particular, has used the qualitative method with its many ramifications and techniques. This approach is gradually been abandoned for a two-prong method - qualitative and quantitative - using them, either separately or in conjunction with each other. In so doing, the disadvantages of both methods are eliminated. For example, in examining the political participation of women quantitatively we can measure the objective political opportunities and resources, and qualitatively we can demonstrate subjective perceptions and rationales for strategies. Here at the University of Crete we respect all types of empirical methods and techniques and through our proposed workshop, we will attempt to probe into gender and political participation through the use of all of them.
With this aim in mind, the program “Gender in Social Sciences” of the University of Crete, will organize a two-day workshop in May 30-31 2008, on “Methods of Studying Gender and Political Participation”. We are intentionally making this topic broad, for we are interested in comparing different methods (e.g., life histories, focus groups, documents, case studies, interviews, surveys, etc.) along with their concomitant results, not comparing results alone. Therefore, the purpose of this workshop is to compare the strengths and weaknesses of different methods. Ultimately, our “grand” aim is to contribute a bit toward the development of empirical theory emanating from multi-methodological research.’

I was told today that it was on the news but I read it in devious diva. The people of the island Lesvos want lesbians to stop being called lesbians. This, in Uk context for example, would be: if there was a famous lesbian poet in the Island of Wight in ancient times, then in modern times women who loved women would be called ‘wightians’ or something like that. But not only in the UK, they would be called wightians all over the world and the island would get tourism because of that. And then one day the council of the Island of Wight would say, please stop being called ‘wightians’ cause we find this offensive.

I grew up in a country that calls the island of Lesvos by the name of the main town, Mitilene. Seldom do you hear the word ‘lesbian’ (which is an adjective and not a noun) to characterise anything else but homosexual women. They make a special cheese there(I have some in my fridge actually) and it is not called ‘lesbian cheese’ but ‘cheese of Mitilene’. Same with ouzo and all other local products. The islanders have refused their own identity as Lesbians (people who come from Lesvos) for years because of the shame they feel about it.

Now, all of a sudden, they reclaim that identity by denying it to others. Which is funny because that story comes at the time when lesbian and gay legal rights in Greece are just starting to loom (or just stop being trespassed) and lesbians start enjoying some minimum visibility (as citizens that is, not as loyal tourists spending their holidays and money in Eressos, the lesbian destination in Lesvos). By demanding the name back, they do not relieve themselves from shame felt for all their modern life, on the contrary, they emphasize the difference between them - the deserving and ‘real’ citizens of a geographical topos for whom the adjective ‘lesbian’ has a meaning of roots, a past and therefore future- and the undeserving, the impossible to carry the name because they have no roots and will have no future. The deprivation of the name symbolizes exactly the deprivation of civil rights including marriage and adoption for lesbians. The lesbians represent the others, the non-belonging. It is impossible for the nationalistic, conservative, theological and patriarchical mentality to imagine a status of civic existence for lesbians, let alone queer family units.