User:MishMich/Intro

PhD Thesis: 'Intersex and Transsexual People's Medical Experience in the UK'.

Following graduation in Philosophy, I spent a number of years in community and social work with drug addicts and elderly people, eventually testing a vocation to religious life through formal novitiate training. Through a post-grad business studies diploma, and a Masters in information technology, I worked in Windows software, RDBMS and UNIX systems development and management, and became a consultant to software development, telecommunications and oil companies. Finding out about my intersex history, and seeing a lack of popular as well as specialist understanding in social sciences of intersex and sex/gender variation issues I undertook a research PhD using social phenomenology to gain a better understanding of the experience of medicalisation from childhood onwards of both intersex and trans people in the UK in a way that did not rely on psychological explanations of behaviour. My interests are primarily with the socio-cultural implications of intersex, and people's own understandings of their situation, rather than scientific theories or other discourses about people. Because of my research interest I was invited to become a member of the UK branch of Organisation Intersex International. Since completing my thesis I am regaining my interest in computers and development, particularly Debian and Ubuntu Linux, Apache, mySQL, web-development and multimedia applications, as well as conducting further research alongside intersex advocacy.