Hello everyone!
This is the blog I'm starting to document my personal experience researching in Asheville this summer. I won't be posting anything about the participants in the study here (because of privacy concerns I will not be posting anything about them anywhere except in my final paper with all the names anonymized) but will relate amusing anecdotes and other tidbits about my life and the process.
This blog may later include tales of my trip abroad to Turkey this September, so be excited for that!
Right, ground rules:
1) This is just my personal experience, so I will invariably say stupid things on this blog. You can comment on them, but just be aware that it will happen.
2) This blog is a safe space. That means that hate speech, threats, and discrimination against people for any reason, including religious belief, gender identity, and sexual orientation, is not allowed in the comments. If I mess up on this, please call me out on it.
3) Feel free to ask me any questions related to anything except about the (confidential, privacy-protected, etc) specifics of my interviews. I love to answer questions and send people links to things!
4) While I have imported posts from my Tumblr, I would prefer if you all avoid Googling around to try and find my tumblog. This Blogger blog may at some point become a professional portfolio component, and I'd prefer if you respect me keeping it separate from my personal internet use. (This is especially true for people in my family, church groups, or university who do not have access to my Tumblr, Twitter, or other accounts in any other way. Please respect my privacy. Thank you.)
If y'all could follow those, that would make you not a horrible person.
Finally, I'm linking this to my Facebook so if any of my friends are interested in reading about my life, they can. So welcome, everyone! Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
from the Tumblr, four days ago
I have been telling people when they ask about my summer plans “If I get the research grant, I will be doing research in Asheville, otherwise I’ll be spending the summer in Charlotte and possibly volunteering.”
And for the past couple weeks, what with being totally drained from Happiness Week, schoolwork, and finals, I have been thinking that I would like to have a summer off doing nothing much other than possibly practicing piano, writing, reading, watching TV and movies with Wesserkins, maybe seeing Nathan if he comes to NC, possibly volunteering with Gracie Harrington’s national LGBTQIA college group organization, and possibly volunteering at the CMLibrary.
But I’ve changed my mind. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve not had to stress about finals or club events, because my meeting Thursday afternoon with the leaders of my small group forced me to deal with the fact that my sexual and religious identities are in legitimate conflict that needs to be resolved, because I’ve had multiple points where I’ve had to explain my research project or related topics to people, because after hanging out this evening with the socialists (especially Emiliano, who is doing things this summer that integrate his religious an political beliefs) made me realize that I am called to some sort of activism, or (most likely) some combination of the above. I have decided, however, that even if I am not funded I will attempt to do my research anyway. I have contacts already in Asheville, and I can ask them to help me find a host family to stay with while I do my research. I won’t be able to pay them rent, but I will do any chores, cooking, errands, or anything else they need me to (like living in a commune!). I may even stay with my mom’s college friend who’s an Episcopal priest in the area, if all else fails.
There’s a lot of work I’d need to do to prepare for this, both as far as reading, theorizing, and preparing myself spiritually (with the expectation that God will move powerfully through this work) and as far as organizing logistically, contacting people, finding interviewees, and keeping both a private and web log. If this is truly the work set before me, God will provide strength and provision. I guess at this point the important thing is to gird up my loins with readiness.
And for the past couple weeks, what with being totally drained from Happiness Week, schoolwork, and finals, I have been thinking that I would like to have a summer off doing nothing much other than possibly practicing piano, writing, reading, watching TV and movies with Wesserkins, maybe seeing Nathan if he comes to NC, possibly volunteering with Gracie Harrington’s national LGBTQIA college group organization, and possibly volunteering at the CMLibrary.
But I’ve changed my mind. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve not had to stress about finals or club events, because my meeting Thursday afternoon with the leaders of my small group forced me to deal with the fact that my sexual and religious identities are in legitimate conflict that needs to be resolved, because I’ve had multiple points where I’ve had to explain my research project or related topics to people, because after hanging out this evening with the socialists (especially Emiliano, who is doing things this summer that integrate his religious an political beliefs) made me realize that I am called to some sort of activism, or (most likely) some combination of the above. I have decided, however, that even if I am not funded I will attempt to do my research anyway. I have contacts already in Asheville, and I can ask them to help me find a host family to stay with while I do my research. I won’t be able to pay them rent, but I will do any chores, cooking, errands, or anything else they need me to (like living in a commune!). I may even stay with my mom’s college friend who’s an Episcopal priest in the area, if all else fails.
There’s a lot of work I’d need to do to prepare for this, both as far as reading, theorizing, and preparing myself spiritually (with the expectation that God will move powerfully through this work) and as far as organizing logistically, contacting people, finding interviewees, and keeping both a private and web log. If this is truly the work set before me, God will provide strength and provision. I guess at this point the important thing is to gird up my loins with readiness.
from the Tumblr, seven months ago
I really want to do a comparative narrative or linguistic analysis of evangelical Christian conversion testimonies and queer coming out stories.
It’s a relatively simple project to research. Sharing testimonies is something I’ve found Christian groups do all the time, and plenty of queer people share stories about the process of coming out, so the stories are there. I know I personally have rehearsed both stories of my own in my head, even though I’ve never shared them formally, so I wouldn’t be surprised if plenty of people would be willing to tell their stories.Plus since it’s a narrative form it’d probably be relatively easy to record (and thanks to my work at Sonic I’m now relatively good at transcribing recordings to text), so the data collection wouldn’t be too hard.
The only problem is that I know nothing of the literature already related to the subject, and I don’t have any clue even which department to go to that would have a professor interested in mentoring me to do this research. (Obviously gender studies and religion would be a good place to start…this would actually make a good thesis were I a gender studies major/minor.)
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