{"id":498,"date":"2017-05-12T17:03:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T17:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/?p=498"},"modified":"2020-12-07T13:36:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T13:36:57","slug":"spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"amy3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, the Winter semester has ended and the Spring semester has just begun.\u00a0 This picture is of my cat who is my constant writing companion. He curls up next to me anytime I sit at my desk to begin writing. He and I have settled into a nice routine, he naps while I write. It is funny though, I was just getting settled into the Winter semester when before I knew it, it was over.\u00a0 I am now done the first phase of my program. The next step is to write comprehensive exams, a scary thought.\u00a0 Basically, this involves a great deal of reading, followed by three exams, two written and one oral. The readings are targeted at my research interests, so I anticipate that weird mixture of pleasure and pain that I have come to understand typifies grad school. There is pleasure in immersing yourself in topics you are interested in, but there is pain from the anxiety of having to know all this stuff!<\/p>\n

As the new semester begins, spring is now on the horizon. I know technically the calendar says we that the season has started, but I have lived in Newfoundland all my life, and I know the difference. As I wrote this, we were under a freezing rain warning, a heavy rain warning and a wind warning.\u00a0 This is Newfoundland spring and we have to make the best of it.\u00a0 I am itching to get some spring cleaning done. I want to organize my papers and my office and I have to urge to clean the whole house.\u00a0 I suspect that this urge is really procrastination in disguise.\u00a0 Cleaning the refrigerator seems much more pressing than writing. But I will persist with the writing process.\u00a0 The cleaning will still be here after I’m finished.<\/p>\n

As I think about spring, I can\u2019t wait to get outside and go biking and running!\u00a0 I have seen a few brave souls around who engage in these activities all winter, but I am a wimp.\u00a0 I\u2019m wary of the ice and snow and don\u2019t want to run on the roads when the sidewalks aren\u2019t clear. So, I have been on the treadmill and spin bike all winter, but I am looking forward to getting outside.<\/p>\n

I have noticed how important it is for me to get moving both for physical health and mental health, but also because it helps me to think.\u00a0 Often when I am writing or reading, I have to get up to move, to dance, to flex my muscles. \u00a0I run to work through stressful problems. \u00a0I swim to achieve mindfulness. \u00a0I bike to feel exhilaration and prepare for a new task. \u00a0I dance for inspiration. Movement is also a method of inquiry and this is important as I start the next phase of my PhD program. Drawing on the work of feminist scholars Elizabeth Grosz and Carla Rice, I am interested in exploring how we use our bodies to process thoughts and feelings and I think about bodies in and of themselves as knowledge systems (Grosz, 1994). For example, Body- Becoming theory allows us to think about the agency of the body. This theory argues that the body is constructed, but it is an on-going, open ended, active process that is shaped by many forces both outside and within the body (Rice, 2014).<\/p>\n

Thus, if we can look at bodies as knowledge systems and active agents, bodies have means of knowing based on interactions with surroundings. Grosz (1994) uses the image of the Mobius strip as a metaphor for the body, demonstrating the body has no clear distinction between outside and inside, but continually outside and inside are folding in on each other. Carla Rice (2016) describes this idea well, stating: \u201cThrough this \u2018infolding,\u2019 everything that happens to people- accidents, insults, or pleasures- becomes an ingredient in the history and development of their bodies\u201d (p. 422). This metaphor illustrates the idea that while bodies are acted on, they are also active agents in their own right. Thus for me, research is closely connected to how I experience my own body and is an active, movement based activity, as much as it is a sitting at my computer, writing activity.<\/p>\n

So I am looking forward to beginning the next phase of my PhD project which will involve developing my research plan.\u00a0 No doubt I will get lots of inspiration as I run and bike on the trails around the city.<\/p>\n

Until next time…<\/p>\n

~Amy<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile bodies:\u00a0 Toward a corporeal feminism. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Rice, C. (2016). Re-visioning fat:\u00a0 From enforcing norms to exploring possibilities unique to different bodies. In J. Ellison, D. McPhail & W. Micthinson (Eds.), Obesity in Canada:\u00a0 Critical perspectives (pp. 419-439). Toronto:\u00a0 University of Toronto Press.<\/p>\n

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Well, the Winter semester has ended and the Spring semester has just begun.\u00a0 This picture is of my cat who is my constant writing companion. He curls up next to me anytime I sit at my desk to begin writing. He and I have settled into a nice routine, he naps while I write. It … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-amy-sheppard","4":"post-498","6":"format-standard","7":"category-student-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1638,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}