have fun!

Best of luck to all of you at the conference - I hope your presentations go really well and keep us informed!
happy studying everybody

Writing, writing....

Hello folks.

With little to read and so much to write, I will briefly give a run down of the status of my paper.

I have 15 pages of single spaced lunacy. Between the relentless typos and grammatically weak structures, there might be glimmers of good analysis and research! Tonight I will be panning for this gold....

The bibliography is fattening up nicely, though I doubt it will consistent of a multitude of sources.

I still haven't finished one transcription, but I will do this after I have a fairly decent document for tomorrow. Within the next 3 or 4 days, I hope to make final changes, adding whatever new ideas I gain from such otherwise mercifully brainless work. :)

Peace and good luck!

Finally!

I have FINALLY finished transcirbing all three of my interviews (though I am very disappointed in my last two because they were so short, and I started off with such a great first itnerview that was long and covered everything I needed) and I have an outline... sorta... which leads me to my question... which final paper to choose to write... I'm really interested in what everyone said in their interviews, but my last two didn't seem interested in talking about what I wanted to talk about at all so I don't have as much as I'd like about what I initially wanted to write about... Any suggestions? I'm thinking about the second paper option but I'm not sure....

Interviews finally

So, after two months of trying to coordinated with my two younger siblings and failing miserably to get time for an interview I finally managed to sit down with them. The first thing I noticed is that 11 year-old boys really like voice recorders. 14 year-old girls do not like hearing their own voice it turns out and after hearing herself during a sound test, she made me promise to never let anyone hear it.

Interviewing children posed a whole new set of challenges for interviewing. Especially with my brother, attention span was a serious issue. He could sit still for more than 30 seconds, so I ended up grabbing a football and throwing it back and forth to him the whole time. My sister was able to handle about 15 minutes, but at that point it was obvious that she wanted to be doing something else and her short efficient answers will made the last few questions of that interview rather pointless. Even if the interview aren't as helpful as I would have liked as far as my research goes, I definitely think I learned a lot of things about interviewing children that will come in handy when I continue my research for capstone.

Film

I watched Drew Barrymore's "Whip It" again last night for my ethnography - it was very interesting to compare and contrast my first and second viewing of this film. With my research question in mind, I noticed a few more things this second time around and I felt that I was able to examine and critique it in a different way. I think I'll definitely be able to discuss a few elements of this movie in my ethnography. Is anyone else using film as a source for their paper?

Another update: my qualitative online survey is getting some great responses! I used surveymonkey to post my interview questions to the league to see what their thoughts were and people have been very receptive and amazing. They're even posting it to the larger WFTDA (Women's Flat-Track Derby Association) message board and to the professional and junior derby league here in Austin. So I'll definitely have some more great quotes to include (without any more transcribing...)

Getting it together.

So this is finally all going to work out;; I hope. I feel like I've put so much of my time and self into this work and I'm sort of having problems making everything come together. I'm sure it's just part of the process--writing and rewriting--I'm just caught up on all the details. It's awkward with the emotions involved, too. I know their relevant, however it's weird (for me) writing an academic paper with self-reflection.

Well;; just sharing. Back to work! Hope all is well and looking forward to having a solid draft finished Monday!

Krystina

Ethnographic overview

Hey everybody - I had to leave early for a lecture the day we went over our paper overviews in class, so I wanted to post my bird's eye view of my ethnography and see if anyone had any additional suggestions! I hope everybody's drafts are going well - I'm hoping mine isn't going to be too much of a train wreck on Monday...

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From my personal experience with the readings this semester, I have particularly appreciated the writings that have very engaging introductions. Therefore, I will strive to start my ethnography off in a similar fashion, hopefully intriguing my readers and sustaining their interest. I would like to begin my paper with a personal account of my initial experiences and introduction to roller derby, along with a brief history and run-down of this sport – what is it exactly? How is the sport played? How did it start? How has it evolved and where is it now? From there I plan on utilizing my field-notes, interviews, and participant observation, to discuss the relationship between contemporary American feminism and roller derby. How do skaters perceive this dynamic? How do those outside the derby world interpret it? How has derby impacted the lives of these women skaters and their personal identities, self-esteem, and confidence? Through weaving in feminist theories and literature, I hope to connect my localized, personal experiences, observations, and interviews with larger, nation-wide issues of female identity and empowerment.

Finally, I intend on concluding my paper with a conversation regarding the potential and future of roller derby. For example, with the recent creation and expansion of “Derby Brats,” an Austin league for 8-17 year old skaters, how might this sport continue to influence future female generations? What can roller derby tell us about the future and direction of feminism? How does derby interact with contemporary American feminism? What spaces of possibility does this sport open up for women? How is roller derby growing and progressing from its original origins? Furthermore, how do I see my relationship with roller derby evolving and continuing? What reflections and conclusions have I personally drawn throughout my relationship with this recreational league?