My (Our) previous connection to AG Queer STS
Connecting different life-worlds: Transformation through kinship (Our experience with poverty alleviation), 2017 https://queersts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Forum-2-2017-44-58-Bajm%C3%B3cy-et-al..pdf
Looking for ways to do meaningful research
How I became involved with AG Queer STS/Queer-Feminist STS Forum…
As a research fellow in Graz ca. 10 years ago I had the opportunity to work together and learn from wonderful colleagues/friends, including Anita Thaler and Magdalena Wicher. They were the ones who suggested me to write a brief paper about how our work with segregated Roma communities shaped us. Later, I could also share my thought about how COVID lock-downs affected us, what kind of possibilities were opened up, and how we failed to learn from some of them.
What happened since my contribution…
Some of my colleagues (who co-authored that paper) still work with the same Roma community. Now, in some cases with the children of those we started to work with in 2011. I’m still in contact with some of the families, but it is not related to my projects or work anymore. I still attempt to carry out participatory, cooperative and action-based (research) projects, and my focus of interest is still sustainability and social justice. The community I have been cooperating the most in the past 5-6 years, has been the community of blind and visually impaired people. This has also shaped my life in many forms. I can call the chair of the local advocacy association my friend, and I was happy to accept her invitation to become an auditing board member for the Association. And without working together with blind people, I would have never thought of co-organizing a workshop with the local transportation company and experience blind people driving trams and trolley-buses, and trying it myself too.
Thinking about the future from a queer-feminist perspective, I…
…would like to keep my openness to learn about and overcome my prejudices, which I did not know that even exist.
My personal wishes to the AG Queer STS / for the Queer-Feminist STS Forum…
First of all, I would like to congratulate for the last ten years! 10 years ago, you published a manifesto, which is just as timely today as it was back then. I wish you all the energy, strength and joy to keep on questioning the reigning hegemonies of doing research, provide a forum for meeting in person and enjoying all the good vibes at the Graz conferences, and go on editing the Queer Feminist STS Forum.