what am i doing here?

I have studied various political dramas. I have studied revolutions, uprisings, and social movements- over land, agrarian reform, food, autonomy, representation, freedom of expression. I have studied the histories of peoples fighting for change, the sociology of class stratification, the roots of radical resistance. I've studied anarchism. poststructural politics. the idea of freedom. identity. queerness. otherness. privilege. egoism. violence. border-crossing. my academic journey began as an examination of globalization, alienating international trade agreements, and the social movements that have arisen in response to the increasing commodification of human and natural resources. my focus has been (regionally) in latin america and the US, but has remained situated in my own context of queerness and desire for trans-liberation. i began to examine alternative power structures, functions and manifestations of power and authority, and the social construction of our citizenship, desire, and self-identification. in my "free" time, I've participated in a heap of social organizing over the years, mostly geared around queer and transgender activism. My academic time has been spattered with history, sociology, gender studies, political science, and philosophy. My interests are wide and varied, but have tended most recently towards poststructural analyses of power and queer theory. With a minor in biology and long background in the sciences, I hope to continue my studies into medicine with a focus on queer and transgender populations. It is difficult to say what particular experiences and texts have been most instrumental in shaping my interests, but I would have to mention my immersion within the radical trans and queer communities in NC. Volunteering at a radical infoshop and helping with a prison books collective in carrboro kicked off my journey into alternative political ideologies and a critique of consumerism. This is when i began taking a closer look at the difficulties faced worldwide by the marginalized and disenfranchised. It wasn't until my last few years of study in the academy that i began to draw connections between global inequities and violence and systemic oppression that permeates the queer communities in which i had been raised. in the queer and trans circuit, i have notably been influenced by theorists such as judith butler, judith halberstam, eve sedgewick, c. jacob hale, and michel foucault. I have found so much overlap between disciplines in my areas of study, and consider it my great privilege to have been able to construct an interdisciplinary route to examine various histories and sciences, I'm sure as this blog goes on, I will get into the interconnectedness of each of my areas of study - this will at least partially be illuminated within my thesis.