Introduction

[Michael Arfken]

Hi Everyone!

I just joined the list and I wanted to introduce myself.

I am doctoral student in Experimental Psychology at the University of
Tennessee. Although my training is in phenomenological psychology I have
begun to move in the direction of practice and discourse. I began my
dissertation research using open-ended interviews where I asked people to,
"tell me about some times when politics stood out to you." From there, my
intention was to do a strict phenomenological study. During my research, I
started to drift away from Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and
towards Heidegger's hermeneutics. This led me to Foucault, discourse,
discursive psychology etc. I have also studied some literary theory,
especially in the context of hermeneutics which has led to my interest in
treating interviews as literature (i.e. playing with issues such a authorial
intention, neopragmatism, etc.)

I'm new to all of this so it will probably be a while before I fire off a
question. I just don't know what to ask yet!

Best,

Mike

Michael Arfken
Center For Applied Phenomenological Research
Department of Psychology
The University of Tennessee
http://phenomenology.utk.edu/
e-mail: marfken at utk.edu