Cathrin Fischer
Department: Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology
Discipline: Sociology and Philosophy
Research Centre/Unit: Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health
Project Summary
I'm interested in the relations of bodies to themselves, each other, and socio-material environments. My PhD project brings together phenomenological and crip, queer, feminist methods to investigate the lived embodied experience of disability. I have a particular focus on prostheses, and queer/crip uses of technology, appendages and environments.
I approach prostheses, and diability technologies, as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they are rooted in medicalised udnerstandings of disability that disabled people have to be 'cured' or made to look 'normal'. On the other hand, prostheses highlight the artifice and permeability of the body, and they can be very useful. A nuanced understanding of disability and technology has to be mindful of all these dimensions.
Supervisory Team
My supervisors are Prof Luna Dolezal, Prof Joel Krueger and Dr Rebecca Lynch.
Wider Research Interests
I am interested in interdisciplinary philosophical approaches which center the lived, bodily experiences of marginalised people and challenge normative assumptions. My research interests are primarily in the areas of phenomenology,especially with regards to disability, illness, psychopathology, embodiment, emotions and feminist issues. I also work in the intersections of philosophy, social theory and medical humanities.
Some of the things I am currently writing and thinking about include home and nostalgia, online spaces, eating disorders, depcitions of madness in pop culture, and heartbreak.
