Malgorzata Milczarek
MA Student
Research Supervisor: Jeff Hopkins
Research Interests
I am interested in two separate, though related, topics:
1. 'sense of place' - with a particular focus on the 'emotional' and embodied experience of place.
2. qualitative methodology - contemporary feminist approaches to the creation of knowledge, which call for 'situated' findings that allow for 'emotional' places to be included into research. My current project uses the novel approach of utilizing the researcher's own 'body' (and emotions) as an instrument of research (Longhurst, 2008).
These two broad interests are further developed in my interest in: 'emotional geographies'; the geography of the body; embodiment; or the geographical study of subjective spatialities and temporalities.
My current research documents and aims to provide a deeper understanding of the 'emotional geographies' of older women, who reside in long-term care. In particular, I explore the meanings that these women attach to the place of 'home'. I revisit a question that has been posed nearly two decades ago: 'can a nursing/long-term care home be called a home?' (Groger, 1995). Returning to the same question - while being cognizant of recent work on emotions, meanings of home, or feminist theory and contemporary methodology - produces interesting findings that provide more depth and nuance to earlier conclusions. The study can be 'situated' within the growing body of geographic work on emotional spaces and 'landscapes of care'.
Presentations
Milczarek, M. (2012) Emotional Geographies of Home: The meanings and identities of home among senior women living in long-term care facilities. Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry; Strong Bones, Strong Minds, Strong Muscles, March 2, 2012. (Oral Presentation)
Awards
SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Masters, 2011 - 1012
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Masters, 2010 -2011
2011 - 12 Co-President Geography Graduate Society
2011 - 12 Geography Graduate Society Orientation Committee Member
2010 - 11 Society of Graduate Student Council Representative
2009 - Present Children's Aid Society of London and Middlesex Volunteer
'Being at Home while Away', GEO 2144: Geography of Tourism, 2012.
