"I started using online
stuff when I moved up North to <Small Town, Northern
British Columbia>. There’s
not much gay community. I started to look online
for community. I needed some sort of connection.
I found a Yahoo group called B.C. Dykes. They
were going out and meeting down in the Lower Mainland
for coffees and for movies and there was a real
sense of caring and they tried to include those
of us that were outside. Then they were gonna
have their first ever gathering on Spinstervale,
on the island. And so I said okay I’m
leaving, I’ll see you guys. And I hit the highway and when I get
there people had already posted, and there was a
little log of my travels all the way down. So here
I was completely isolated and I suddenly had a community
of queer women. It really did save my ass."
Excerpt from a "Queer Women on the Net" project interview
Dr. Bryson's primary research websites are at: http://www.shecan.com and
http://www.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/bryson/queerville/.
Many of her publications can be found at: http://educ.ubc.ca/faculty/bryson/cv.html |
Mary Bryson
"Queer Women on the Net: Identity, Community, and Agency in the Landscapes of Computing"
"My interest in the significance of the Internet as it is actually
used, experienced, materially organized, and
narrativized by queer folk and communities lies in its potential to
make visible traces and networks of queer cultural activities and
social formations. I have an explicitly pedagogical interest in cyberspace
as a powerful tool for learning to be, or perhaps more specifically,
to do, queer. In this context, then, “virtually queer”
marks the intersection between the performative and “in progress” qualities
of queer culture and its manifestations and permutations engendered
by networked digital technologies-construed as spaces and artifacts-as
important mediative elements in the production of “queer.”
SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2004-2007, Queer Women on the Net:
Identity, Community, and Agency in the Landscapes
of Computing The main objectives of Dr. Bryson's
current research are to: (a) Advance knowledge
concerning women and the Internet; (b) Document the kinds of participation
of QLGBT women in online environments and communities; (c) Identify
the specific knowledge and resource needs and related Internet search
strategies identified by QLGBT women, with a particular focus on the
areas of health, legal issues and human rights, identity formation
and community participation; (d) Elucidate the significance of the
Internet as consisting in a set of tools, locations, relations and
cultures that may enhance the agency of QLGBT women in the face of
marginalization, heterosexism and homophobia; (e) Assess the impact
of geographical location, race, age, and other significant axes of
identification on Internet usage and participation in online
locations and groups.
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