| Post: | Associate Tutor |
| Location: | C/O Christina Oelgemoller Arts C |
| Email: | A.Porroche-Escudero@sussex.ac.uk |
Biography
I completed my MA in Women´s Studies at The University of York (2006). Previous to this I obtained a BA in Social Anthropology at Barcelona University (2003) and a BA in Social Work at The University of Zaragoza, Spain (2001). My DPhil thesis follows upon my masters´ dissertation "A Different Reading of Breast Cancer: Women's Experiences in a Rural Spanish Village". My doctoral research was generously supported by a Fundación Caja Madrid Award (2007-2008) and supervised by Dr Maya Unnithan and Prof Gillian Bendelow.
Role
Post: Associate TutorResearch
Listening to Women: Political Ethnographic Narratives of Breast Cancer in Spain In asserting the importance of breast cancer, my DPhil thesis will address Spanish women's subjective experiences of breast cancer. In doing so, I hope to explore how they define their own illness and health priorities. Much of the research on breast cancer has focused on the psychological feelings of inadequate feminity resulting from the mastectomy. However, breast cancer brings its own multiple and complex problems, not only those well-known concerns relating to the body image and sexuality. Thus, my research intends to show how cultural notions of health, illness, gender and the social construction of women's bodies shapes Spanish women's experiences of breast cancer. Key words: Critical medical anthropology, feminism, breast cancer, nippleism, breastism, health, illness, embodiment, biomedicine, narratives, women´s health. Other research interests include gender violence, sexual education, feminism and methodology and action research methodology.
Publications
Articles
`(Re)construyendo Mitos: Crítica Feminista sobre la Construcción Social de la Sexualidad Femenina y Sus Repercusiones en la Violencia Sexual¨,[(Re)constructing Myths: Feminist Criticism of the Social Construction of Female Sexuality and Its Impact on Sexual Violence]. Clepsydra: Revista de Estudios de Género y Teoría Feminista. (2007) N.6, pp:139-158.
Conference Papers
Hidden Pleasures for Women: Forbidden Nipple Eroticism and the Implications of Nipplectomy for Breast Cancer Patients. Paper presented at NGender: Seminars in Gender Studies. University of Sussex, UK, 19th January 2010
Writing from Breast Cancer Patients´ Lives: The Erotic Significance of the Lived Nipple. Paper presented at the 5th Global Conference `The Erotic: Exploring Critical Issues´ in Salzburg, Austria, 6th-8th November 2009.
Thinking Breast Cancer: Notes for a Radical Theory of Sexual Politics of Breast Cancer. Paper presented at the 41th Annual Medical Sociology Conference held by the British Sociological Association at The University of Manchester, UK, 3rd-5th September 2009.
"Now that I Can I Cannot!" Spanish Breast Cancer Patients and Information on Sexual Health: A Question of Social Justice. PECANS Workshop 2009. Workshop entitled `Situating Social Justice´, University of Westminster, 6th -7th March 2009.
"The Vagina Politic: Sexuality, Art and the (Re)production of Gender Violence". Lecture at Clinical Meetings in Human Sexuality, Porterbrook Clinic, Sheffield, UK, 15th January 2009 (with Qvintvs Teatrae).
"A World (With)out Vaginas": Reclaiming Vaginas in a Small Spanish Village. II Annual Conference of the Brighton and Sussex Sexualities Network (BSSN), Brighton, UK, 17th September 2008 (with Qvintvs Teatrae).
Activities
Besides her DPhil, Ana is involved with community work from her home base in Spain. Together with Qvintvs Teatrae, she co-organized the first VDay Worldwide Campaign in Spain (08) to raise awareness and funds for local organizations working to end violence against women and girls. Actually she is the convenor of the Love your Body workshops as a part of the VDay community proyect (09 &10). She has particular interest in uniting activism with art, pleasure, and innovative methodologies (i.e.PAR, ethnomimesis, sensory workshops) to empower the community in order to prevent gender violence.