Introduction

[Susanna Rance]

As a new list member, I here introduce myself: my name is Susanna Rance.

Born in England in 1952, I have lived and worked in La Paz, Bolivia since
1980.

I combine research, postgraduate teaching and activism in the fields of
gender, health, sexual and reproductive rights.

As a Ph.D. student (since 1995) with the Department of Sociology, Trinity
College, University of Dublin, I am preparing a thesis on variations in
medical discourse concerning abortion.

As part of my thesis research, I have developed an application of Gilbert
and Mulkay's (1984) interpretative repertoires to categorise Bolivian
hospital doctors' discourse in three changing and alternating voices:
technical, normative and pragmatic.

I have also explored certain "reconciliation devices" (Ibid.) used by
doctors to deal with conflict between repertoires. These are especially
relevant in discussions concerning abortion (generally treated as illegal in
Bolivia), where doctors frequently face dilemmas (Billig et al. 1988)
between professional criteria, legal and institutional norms and pragmatic
considerations.

My research method involves presenting preliminary descriptive analyses of
hospital data to the doctors concerned for their appraisal and critical
analysis.

In the same dialogic vein bordering on action-research, I have also taken a
"story dossier" - a critical hospital event "told" in the words of five
different speakers - to the La Paz state university medical school, for
discussion exercises with students and teachers of medicine.

In postgraduate centres of state universities in several Bolivian cities, I
have taught courses on gender theories, gender and knowledge, gender and
health, qualitative research methods, and research ethics. I form part of
the team of lecturers about to commence a new Masters course in Gender
Studies at the postgraduate centre of the La Paz state university
(CIDES-UMSA).

I look forward to exchanging ideas with fellow list members.

Greetings to all,

Susanna


Susanna Rance
<srance at ceibo.entelnet.bo>
Fax (591-2) 485621
Tel. (591-2) 484060
Cel. 015-43970
Casilla 10640
La Paz, Bolivia