My name is Alisha Grech and this is my blog. But, you know that already because you've either found it on my website or actually managed to read through one of my long-winded tweets.
I am a lot of things. Right now, I am mostly sleep-deprived and desperate to switch places with my dog who sleeps a few feet away from me. As with most of our identities, mine changes from place to place, person to person. At this moment (I'll give you a heads up if this changes) I am a first-year PhD student at the University of Toronto. I am interested in studying the tensions between female-identifying bodies and public space from an intersectional, feminist perspective. (I'm hoping that) This work will be at the core of my dissertation.
When I am not questioning the inherent toxic male-centered and empowered nature of urban public spaces, I am reading/watching true crime, walking my dog, and most definitely trying to make someone else laugh through performance. You can find all of that information on my resume, so I'll be leaving most of that content out.
Something I'm currently wrestling with is how to bring myself into my writing. Usually, in the realm of academia, I am constantly writing about someone else. But this is impossible with the subject matter I'm pursuing.
I am a young woman who is going to end up looking extensively at violence against other women in public spaces that are similar to the ones that I inhabit in my own city. I have (at this point) a seemingly endless list of questions for myself. Here's a few for starters:
What do I mean by female? What do I mean by woman? Is this intersectional? Is this inclusive?
What do I mean by public space?
What does Urban really mean?
How can female bodies subversively occupy public spaces that feel exclusively meant for men?
How can protest as performance mobilize and empower female bodies to inhabit public space?
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