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 Kate Lawless
When Kate Lawless completed a degree in Gender Equality and Social Justice, she went looking for the next challenge and a new place where she could pursue her interests. She found both in the Theory, Culture & Politics (TCP) M.A. program at Trent. “My undergraduate thesis advisor suggested that the Theory, Culture & Politics program would be a good supplement to my background in feminist philosophy and social justice and she was absolutely right,” Kate says about her decision to come to Trent. Since coming to Trent in 2006, Kate has thrived. Her M.A. thesis was accepted with no revisions, a nearly unheard of accomplishment, and so impressed her external examiner, Dr. Janice Hladki, professor at McMaster University, that she was invited to lecture to Prof. Hladki’s classes. “I was invited to give a lecture on a short film I had analyzed in my thesis called Sea in the Blood, by Toronto-based video artist Richard Fung,” Kate explains. “Lecturing on work I had studied closely for nearly a year was a wonderful opportunity, and the students were very receptive to my presentation.” Kate’s thesis, entitled On Being ‘Sick’: Scholarly Treatments of Illness and Identity in Critical Illness Narrative, is an examination of how current understandings of illness in general are influenced by the ways in which we have conceived of sexuality since the late eighteenth century in both science and popular culture. Completed under the supervision of “the wonderful” Dr. Veronica Hollinger, her work also suggests that understandings of sexuality have been structured by the language of pathology. “By focusing on four separate scholars who attempt to theorize their experiences of illness, I traced the ways in which each illness narrative was connected to a specific turn in identity movements, from feminism to postcolonial, queer, and critical disability theories, in order to suggest the ways in which the experience of illness can often be a vehicle for theorizing identity,” says Kate. As a new graduate of the TCP program, Kate says there isn’t anything else quite like in Canada, and it has been an experience that she will never forget. “My time at Trent was time well spent,” she says. “The education I received is second to none, but most of all I appreciated the sense of community that is fostered at Trent in general and in the Theory, Culture & Politics program in particular.” A favourite memory of Kate’s from her time in the TCP program was a retreat facilitated by the program on a piece of property in the Haliburton area owned by the University and referred to as Windy Pine. New and returning students participate in the annual retreat, where, as Kate explains, “students enjoy a weekend away in communal cabins, cooking and eating delicious communal meals, participating in cottage activities and games, partaking in fine wines and generally contemplating the state of the world and the cosmos.” Kate, a mother to two, is currently working on her Ph.D. at the University of Western Ontario in her hometown of London, Ontario. |
North Bay, Ontario