Pedicure on my toes, toes...

Okay everyone,
I have not yet started interviewing but will hopefully be able to get my first interview over the weekend or spring break at the latest. My roomate didn't end up going to College Station this weekend so couldn't ask her friend a/b it. However, I am starting to become engaged with the literature on the topic. One of the books that's going to be really helpful (misconceptions) by Naomi Wolf already gave me three other references in the intro, one of whom is an anthropologist on the topic, though from the context she was referenced in, not in the subject matter I am interested in. Having said that, I am also doing my research paper for my public policy class on an HIV/AIDS policy that was reinstated in 2008 to allocate 48 billion dollars internationally to combat the global aids epidemic. During my research, I came across something which I didn't consider. It is WHO regulations that each country have 2.3 doctors or nurses per 1000 people and in a chart that showed the number of doctors and nurses per 100,000 people, all countries on the chart had much higher rates of nurses than doctors, including the U.S, except the UK, Dijibouti, and Kenya. I would not have even considered this in part of my questioning if I had not come across this. Nurses are an integral part of any person's doctor visits and would invariably be in the case of pregnant women. So, I've tacked on some questions. Reading the literature is making me think of many new questions as well as leading me to think about the ways in which identity is formed through relationships and how fixed they seem within that relationship. Because of this, I intent on using memory of mine for my field notes as this project is leading me to think more broadly. That's about it.

Amanda

Weird Message from IRB

So, I just read an e-mail that I have been approved by the IRB and they are allowing me to do my research. But the weird part is that I had an earlier message from them that I had to make a few changes. Right now what I'm thinking is that they may have mistaken my IRB forms with someone else's, but I am meeting with Claudia tomorrow to ask her.

any recruitment ideas?

Welll...So far no one has answered my recruitment e-mail and I have sent out about two. I feel like I may change the format of the e-mail, maybe it seems very boring, not interesting to people...I'm not sure. Have you guys received it? Do you think it could be phrased in any way that would be better? Or a way that would draw people's attention more? I have a lot of people that have come up to me saying" Yea I saw your e-mail, but I'm not prescribed..." But as we all know I cannot use those people. I have on interview scheduled with one of my friends who is prescribed, and that should happen tomorrow. So I am excited about that. Besides that I am just reading up on the literature, trying to get as much stuff as I can. Although I will no be asking questions about illegal drug use, I do think that I will use articles that discuss it, just to put the medicine into some kind of context. Although I can't talk about it, I am not going to avoid a huge factor revolving around it..thats about it for now!

Catching Up

So I have made some slight changes with my recruitment and research site for this assignment and feel like I am now moving in the right directions. I have one physician who has agreed to meet with me this week and two people who have attained disabilities later in life lined up to speak with before the end of next week. My goal is to have all my interviews completed and transcribed by March 22. I know I am behind, but my hope is to work quickly and consistently these next two weeks and hopefully start out decently caught up after spring break.

I am concerned about my bibliography, however, and hope that this week proves more successful than last week as far as finding relevant sources.

The readings are helpful, but sometimes frustrating. I feel like things are going to make a lot more since once I'm actually doing fieldwork.

Hope everyone is doing well and thank you all for your time!

Second Interview

Having just completed my second interview I have come to realize how well some people can dance around questions. During my second interview the person the respondent made a point of never directly answering my questions. At first I didnt think he was doing it intentionally but after beginning to transcribe the interview it appears to be pretty intentional.  The interesting thing is that the last person I interviewed was directly effected by the violence. This person was really not for the most part, he lived across the border, had a few friends that had witnessed things but had not lost anybody that he loved to the violence so the reason for his answering the questions in the way that he did is unkown to me.

tidbit

My posts are not very poignant this week but I will say this -

This transcription process has really made me appreciate all those childhood hours spent with"Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."

I am also working on roughly outlining my paper and getting some structural ideas going. I'm also about to send out that survey to the rec league email group - I'm hoping to get some good feedback from that. We have our first "big" bout coming up soon so I should also get some good footage/photography/field-notes from that!

Portfolio and Interview

This past week has been so crazy and I've had hardly any time between being sick and events that I'm still working on transcribing my first interview, but it should be done sometime tonight, and then I have my second interview planned for next week with an unaffiliated freshman girl, so for my last interview I have to ask a guy on campus, but I haven't decided if they will be affiliated or not. I am also working on finishing up some of my portfolio before class tomorrow, but I can't tell for sure! This is really short because I'm off to work on transcribing more, but I've been rereading the notes we took in class last week on interviews so the next time I do one it wont be as awkward!

Hello, folks.

I feel like this blog is my confessional space. Well, forgive me, but I have procrastinated! I still need to finish up transcribing my first interview. Oy. But the fiction of time that comes with spring break has me feeling all right. I will finish it tonight if it's the last thing I do!

I was out of town this weekend (from Thursday afternoon until Saturday afternoon- a collegiate eternity!). I was preparing some ecology research for a poster so I had no time to devote to observations last week. Regardless of this, I am confident that I will have time during spring break. I will be in town, with a car, and itching to leave my home premises. So, I hope to finish up my interviews (and transcriptions!) in the comfort of spring break. I will continue to observe at least weekly for as long as I can, and I plan to head in to volunteer for one or two full days, if possible, this break.

As for interviews, I have made contact via email with the doctor and with a medical assistant. As stated earlier, I intend to finish those over spring break. I very much look forward to them, actually (just not the transcription process).

IRB revisions still plague me. I sent it in again and was asked to review some more things. I will probably ask for help from yall before I send in my next version tomorrow afternoon.

Peace.

Interview update

First interview = check
It was a lot of fun - I really admire and like Tart Attack so it was great to get to talk to her more personally. I think she said some really poignant and useful things so I'm looking forward to starting the transcription process very soon. She also recommended some more materials for my bibliography/personal perusal. I liked this magazine about pop culture, feminism, and media criticism in particular and I thought I'd share - http://bitchmagazine.org/

I think I've learned a lot about the interviewing process from actually doing it and I definitely have some ideas and revisions for next time. Thank you all for the list of do's/do not's last class - those were also very helpful!
Hope you're all having an enjoyable Sunday