Iris Pai
ep575@york.ac.uk
I was born and been educated in Taipei until I left to come to York. After achieving BA in Philosophy with a minor in Psychology and MA in Philosophy from SooChow University, I continue studying my interest in MPhil/PhD program at the Centre of Women's Studies with interdisciplinary approach. It relates to the philosophy of politics, feminist theories, gender studies, sociology, and social psychology. Under the supervision of Stevi Jackson, now I’m working on the subject of ‘Alternative family structures in Taiwan’.
While reaching this subject, I find single women and lesbians in the context of Taiwanese family and society will be worth to point out in empirical studies. With social changing in the few decades, greater sexual autonomy and individualism lifestyle choices have deeply influenced the relationship between single/lesbian daughters and patrilineal family. I believe that this newly phenomenon has remarkable influence on people’s doing families. Looking at East Asian context, a shared cultural background for women and particular modernity development in Japan and Korea will be discussed. I’ll also aim to theorize single woman and lesbians’ forming ‘family’ actions by dealing with some theoretical debates on modernity, feminist theory and lesbian theory. In the future I hope I can develop a new framework of lesbian family research through collecting women’s narrative in doing family.
During the period of being research assistant last three years, I have several experiences as a lecturer holding focus groups on gender issues for high school girls, university students and lesbian community, emphasizing mostly on LGBT identities, as well as sexuality, body experiences and intimacy relationship. I enjoy connecting theory and practice in doing these works, and I appreciate them to broaden my vision.