Brief version: Peter Gray, age 46, PhD student in the Institute of Education
at Stirling University, researching relationships between adult education
and spatiality.
Extended remix:
I ended up in the Inst of Ed by accident, having done a Film & Media degree
with an Environmental Education component. Prior to that I planted trees in
the Far North and before that I was a road manager for a variety of rock
bands. My interest in spatiality happened by accident and design.
The accidental part was buying Lefebvre's "the Production of Space" without
a clear reason, preceded and followed by an interest in Heidegger set in
motion by Kenneth White and informed by a course on "Being & Time" taught by
Hubert Dreyfus at UC Berkeley. That's the name-dropping part.
The design process was growing up in Edinburgh under the shadow of the
Pentland Hills and with eighty miles of Firth of Forth out of my bedroom
window. Cycling and walking, then driving all over europe and the USA
Then further accident in devising a research proposal which incorporated all
the other accidents. Space was sexy for some reason, so I was in.
The focus of my research is on the ways in which adult learners actively
spatialise the university, not just the visible university but the
university as a presence at the kitchen table and elsewhere along the
journey. ~I draw on Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty to begin my push against
the paradigm, but there are plenty of others to engage with along the way.
I don't go for the fragmented self but I'm glad to maintain a part-time
occupation in another imaginary body. That's it, easy really.
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