Blog > Administrativia > Let’s Help This PhD Student With Her Research
Let’s Help This PhD Student With Her Research
Written by Sean on Wednesday, April 28, 2010
I have been approached by a PhD student out of Texas, who wants to use material from the site for a paper she is working on. She is asking if we are ok with her use of the material on this site. I am, but she does want to ask if anyone’s uncomfortable about their writing being part of the research. I offered for her to pose her question directly.
I tend to be open to research. I also figure that whatever is posted in public here is open to scrutiny by researchers. Yet, I appreciate her request and think it’s a good idea to offer the chance to anyone who does NOT want to appear in the study to be able to say so.
Here is what she wrote:
Dear Transabled.org bloggers:
My name is Jenny Davis and I am a PhD student at Texas A&M University. I study sociology with a specialization in identity.
I am interested in studying the identity/emotion work engaged in by those who have BIID. Ultimately, I would love to do interviews, but at the moment, I only have permission from the IRB to do content analysis. As such, I have analyzed introductory statements by bloggers in term of their use as self narratives, seeking out the patterns.
Although I realize that the site and the blogs are publicly available, I also realize that the blogs were written for particular reasons, and I do not want to use them in a way that makes the authors uncomfortable.
If anyone does not want their blogs [posts] used in my research, please contact me and you will be removed from the study. In addition, I am more than willing to discuss the project further with anyone who has questions. I have included my e-mail address below.
Thank you for your time
Jenny
I asked Jenny what brought her to chose this particular topic, and I was quite interested by her answer:
[...] it was kind of by accident to be honest. A few years ago, I read a postcard on postsecret.com written by a person with BIID. I had never heard of this thing, and so looked around the web for more information. I then mentioned it some people, asking if they had ever head of it. Most had not. What struck me though, were the extreme reactions I was getting when bringing it up. Highly educated, “open minded” people were laughing, rolling their eyes, expressing disgust, or completely dismissing the concept of needing to be differently-abled. In light of such reactions, I wondered how people with BIID managed their everyday lives. How do they construct a sense of self when their true sense of self is so highly stigmatized? I think that by studying BIID, it will increase understandings of this particular community (the transabled community) and also increase understandings of stigmatized identity work more generally.
So there you go folks, it’s up to you! I encourage you NOT to bail out :)
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14 Comments
I am in. If there is some specific issue you would like me to write more about, please, let me know.
It’s very rare when somebody realizes how difficult the position of a person with BIID is and is interested in learning more.
3 On 28 April, 2010, Sophie said:
I’m happy for her to use my posts (so long as they aren’t taken out of context) and as Chloe said, if she needs any further information/help please feel free to contact me :)
Thank you all so much for your positive feedback, advice, and support. Again, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions. I am more than willing to speak with you about the work.
I am a frequent reader of this forum and I would like to participate in this because I suffer from BIID and would love to help and I live in Texas as well. So I am able to do an interview if needed. so please feel free to contact me at any time
@Greg C. Thank you so much for volunteering. At the moment I only have approval for content analysis ( I am currently analyzing introduciton posts by bloggers). I will hopefully be doing interviews at some point though, and would love to speak with you. And, like I said before, if you (or anyone) is interested in my findings, I would love to share them with you and get feedback.
I’m not an blog’s author, but I’m available to any questions. ^^
Just write me: passos.helena@hotmail.com
Hi Helena, thank you so much for your interest! I will ask Sean to post it on the site as soon as I get approved for interviews (it may be a little while though). Keep checking back. As for now, please feel free to e-mail me with any questions/critiques etc.
9 On 4 May, 2010, Phil said:
Hi Sean, hi Jenny,
the internet is there for everybody, and everyone who writes here knows that his/her writings can be used for every purpose without any possibility to control it. Research is one of the best purposes.
Jenny, I wish you luck and interesting insights!
Phil
10 On 4 May, 2010, Sean said:
Hi Phil, I did point that out to Jenny, it’s on the net, it’s public information. But she wanted to make sure we asked, and so we have :)
Hi phil,
Thanks for your openness and your well wishes. I know that the Internet (and so these blogs) are public… but, as Sean said, I don\\\’t want to take advantage of this. Moreover, I would rather be a critiqued researcher than a creepy lurker ;-)
Oh, better an honest researcher than a creepy lurker any time! Best of luck with this project. I think you’ll find us a pretty decent crowd.
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1 On 28 April, 2010, Chloe said:
@Jenny: I am very excited about your study of sociological aspects of BIID. You absolutely have my full blessing to use anything I have written on this website. Should you obtain IRB permission, I would definitely be available for interview.
Thank you so much for your interest.
~ Chloe