researching and reading

since my last post, i've begun conducting interviews for my dissertation.  it's been an incredible process.  after each interview, listening again to the recordings, i'm learning so much about how to be a better interviewer.  the biggest piece has been to step back, allow silences, and allow people to direct the conversation.  so far, the interviews have been illuminating.  i'm interested both in how people write at my workplace and also how the workplace enables them to construct their identities and make meaning about our workplace and its social and political dynamics.  it's amazing how much these issues come up in regular conversation and what a deep awareness people have of the politics.  it's also been interesting to listen for power in the conversations, to see it emerge in areas i didn't expect.  this work is so exciting.  i'd love to spend my life interviewing people about their lives and work, learning about how they think and who they are and where work fits into all that.  really, i could do it all day.

outside of that, i should be doing better at reading academic things.  i've been wanting to start reading "images of organization," which one of my committee members suggested to me.  i did read the introduction and loved it (and looking at the table of contents got me pretty excited about the book) and i can't wait to read more.

but i have to admit, i've been indulging in all kinds of novels instead.  the newest one, which i just purchased about a week ago, is called "dreaming in cuban" by cristina garcia--it's her first novel, which she wrote in 1992, and it was recently banned from the curriculum in arizona schools because of what a parent of a 10th grader described as "porn," but could more accurately be described as a few short paragraphs describing sex.  in any case, a book being banned somewhere is probably one of the best reasons to purchase it with urgency and read it as soon as possible.  that said, and as i've likely written on here before, i have a tendency to have 10-20 books open at once (i would love to know the cure for this), so it takes me a while to really get into and finish a book.  i want to try and curb this by finishing up the two or three books that i'm more than halfway through.  once that happens, i'll start reading this one (admittedly, i already read the first few pages).  anyway, i'll let you know how it goes.