Cathrin Fischer

About Me/Biography 

I have a background in philosophy, social sciences and psychology – which has left me really interested in interdisciplinary research! I Following my BA Degree in Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology at the University of Exeter, I went to University College Dublin for my MA in Philosophy, specialising in Consciousness and Embodiment. I am now at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health as part of the ‘Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures Project’.

Philosophy is a collective practice for me – it is never easily separated from other aspects of life, often intersects with other disciplines and always done in conversation and exchange with others. At UCD, I co-founded a Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) chapter as part of the grassroots MAP organisation which aims to address structural barriers to the participation of marginalized people in philosophy. With this group, I have organised various events and spaces for meeting that focus on interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives in and to philosophy, and engaged philosophical practice.

Research I will be undertaking in the Centre 

I’m interested in the relations of bodies to themselves, each other, and socio-material environments. My PhD project brings together phenomenological and crip, queer, feminist methods to investigate the lived embodied experience of disability. I have a particular focus on prostheses, and queer/crip uses of technology, appendages and environments.

I approach prostheses, and disability technologies, as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they are rooted in medicalised understandings of disability that disabled people have to be ‘cured’ or made to look ‘normal’. On the other hand, prostheses highlight the artifice and permeability of the body, and they can be very useful. A nuanced understanding of disability and technology has to be mindful of all these dimensions.

I am part of Work Package 1 ‘Imagining/Experiencing Disability, Care and Embodiment’ of the ‘Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures’ project, supervised by Professor Luna Dolezal, Prof Joel Krueger and Dr Rebecca Lynch.

Beyond the PhD project, I am interested in interdisciplinary philosophical approaches which center the lived, bodily experiences of marginalised people and challenge normative assumptions. My research interests are primarily in the areas of phenomenology,especially with regards to disability, illness, psychopathology, embodiment, emotions and feminist issues. I also work in the intersections of philosophy, social theory and medical humanities.

Some of the things I am currently writing and thinking about include home and nostalgia, online spaces, eating disorders, depictions of madness in pop culture, and heartbreak.