Breaking Point Principle - background (updated)
Here's the link to my abstract (now on my academia page and my feminist blog, Marching As One) which I wrote back in June 2010 outlining the independent research I was undertaking, springing off from my experience at University:
It was indeed, Hossack, who indirectly sparked off this research by saying that what was happening to me was stalking. So, I thought I ought to take a closer look at stalking and all the other female related issues that were happening e.g the porn site, violence (including implied and potential), harassment and so on. When I mentioned this to Professor Susan James she agreed it would be an idea to follow up these problems because it was an unique personal experience and it might help me. At no point did she suggest I do any written work and it was entirely up to me how, when, what I decided to do as my own personal research. It was my idea that I wanted to gain experience doing my own independent research and personal projects during my uni holiday periods.
After Hossack said it was stalking, I began researching stalking early 2010 then continued working on it, as well as related issues and feminism. I had more time in the summer term, after the May exams, when I was free from having to read set articles and write essays for the degree as well as reading around those set topic areas. Once the summer term was over, all students were effectively unenrolled which is why we had to re-enroll every year before the start of the autumn term. Therefore, I wasn't technically a student during the summer holidays so I thought it was an excellent time to focus on independent research 📝📔 and train for ITF 🎾tennis tournaments I was entering. During the summer, I also attended philosophy conferences, workshops and talks to further extend my knowledge of philosophy, especially since I did a lot of reading beforehand and asked lots of questions during question time. In this way, my knowledge of Spinoza and the history of philosophy expanded far beyond the BA degree. All students could do likewise if they chose to because they are all public events! You are not funded to attend but then students rarely attend free and local ones either. It does take effort and commitment to travel to conferences and put in the extra hours to go to every talk, prepare for it, take notes, learn and ask questions. So of course I am more able and up-and-running to do my own independent research straight after my degree and others are not, because they simply haven't put in the extra hours and the effort. And I already started off at a higher level than other undergraduate students, as this abstract shows.
I had this particular abstract done by June 2010. It was my idea to write an abstract because I was already aware of how to undergo academic research from my mother who home-educated me. She prepared me well for uni! I didn't go there straight from school so was not reliant on teachers. Home-educated children, teenagers, young adults are used to working independently, under their own steam. The parent can't be with you all the time. She needs a break to mark, evaluate, write up how things are going, prepare for the next day's teaching and have a cup of tea! ☕🥧
Every uni holiday period, especially over the summer, I would read all and any philosophy books📚 and journals 📒I could get my hands on to build my general knowledge and gain in-depth knowledge of topics and philosophers that interested me. So, I was doing philosophy full time 12 months a year, constantly reading, writing and thinking philosophy throughout my philosophy degree. So my part-time degree was, for me, far more intensive than a full-time degree, thanks to all the extra work I put into self-directed, self-motivated learning and research which I did in addition to my course and on top of my tennis training, art, music and other pursuits.
I wanted to become a researcher and develop my feminist theory further before I even went to uni, so gaining experience in feminist independent research alongside my university study was something I had always planned to do which is why I did. It wasn't Susan James' idea I do any philosophy or feminism or research on top of my course, it was my idea before I'd even met her!
I repeat, Susan James did not work with me (neither did I work for her) on this research (or anything else) otherwise it wouldn't belong to me. I would have to acknowledge her contribution. No problem if she was working on it with me but she wasn't! Putting someone's name on something they haven't done is a form of mis-attribution. Quite apart from the simple fact that she wouldn't have the time to work on it with me and would insist I include her name somewhere if she were to spend time on it! In June 2010, I showed her my file with my feminist research in it. She flicked through it, saying nothing. I mentioned my abstract, showed it to her by giving her a print out of it and I said she could keep it and she did. We didn't discuss my abstract but after she finished reading it she said "good!" then she checked I was happy to defend my strong, radical stance, which I was. 🙂 And that was that! Susan James was the only person to whom I showed or gave a copy of the abstract. As for my family, my mother was the only person who saw and read my abstract but didn't receive a copy of it.
With all the drama around me, I ran out of time to apply for government funding in my first year so I never received any for that year because the government were not prepared to backdate my funding to my first year. I thought this was unfair but didn't question it. So, the abstract is written during the year when I didn't receive any funding, at the time or retrospectively, so it's truly all mine. Furthermore, if Susan James had worked on it with me then the research and abstract would have belonged to the college because she was employed by the college hence her work might somewhat belong to them. Therefore, I wouldn't want her to have anything to do with it! And she was happy not to have anything to do with it. As far as she was concerned, it was my work not hers, not ours. It was to help me cope with my uni circumstances not for her to impose her ideas on it. I love her laid back approach! 🙂 I love the freedom it gives! 👍
I didn't send this abstract via email to her because I had it on me so I gave her my printed copy, but I had another at home. I suspected that college emails weren't as secure as I originally thought. That's why, when in 2011 the college decided to get rid of the college-run student email account system and replace the student email system with another provider (google, I think), I stopped using any college email. How? I changed my college email at the end of the second year to my personal one, and transferred all the college-based emails to my personal one (as well as backing up those college emails in other ways). Then I deleted all the e-mails in my college email account. This left the account empty so that no-one can access any of my emails retrospectively. And I never set up the new college email system thereby never changed back again to a college one.
By the by, I also never released any emails between myself and Professor Susan James at any time for any reason. I assumed they were private and confidential because they were about my personal story of what was happening to me at uni therefore I expressed myself more emotionally than in those emails to others at uni, be they lecturer, student or wider college😪. Susan James understood that. But I often heard snippets from my emails, and it wasn't the students who were referring to sections in my emails, so who knows how that leaked out. I know Susan James wouldn't release them, well not voluntarily anyway!
So, I have been working as an Independent Researcher since July 31st 2013. To be working as one you cannot, although some seem to think they can, simultaneously be a student at an institution at any level from UG to PhD and neither can you be a post-doc! Having said that, I have experience as an independent researcher, as we can see above, since 2010. Thus, I have 11 years of experience as an independent researcher but 8 years of working as one!
I had always intended to be a writer, especially in the field of feminism, well before I went to university. I only attended uni because there's this rather ridiculous idea 🙄that everyone needs a degree just to sneeze.🌬 Since Philosophy teaches logic and how to construct arguments, I decided that was the best subject to choose for what I wanted to do. And one I enjoyed and was good at. In addition, it would fit neatly with my creative work, which is just as important, because I could specialise in aesthetics so enhance people's understanding of my creative process/work. I also wanted to write logically clear, well-argued books 📚 in both pure feminism and aesthetics.
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