As a feminist scholar, I have a long-standing interest in how gender, place, and culture interact in unique ways in different spaces. In my doctoral research, I investigated women's experiences of emotional well-being in the Shetland Isles, Scotland. This has led to other interests including voluntary sector counselling provision as a contemporary strategy for emotional well-being; geographies of care-giving; women's experiences of depression in rural/remote communities; and migration from Shetland to New Zealand in the 1870s and the resulting present-day feelings of connection.

I am currently funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Award and UNBC.

What I'm up to this summer:

• Caring for the North: Gender, Care and Northern Places, June 7-8 2006, UNBC, Prince George

  I am excited to be coordinating this international symposium at UNBC (http://www3.telus.net/public/wnn/CFN_Symposium.htm). The symposium will explore the fundamental issues of gender and care as they affect the health and well-being of people in northern places. This symposium will bring together researchers from a variety of perspectives including geography, gender studies, social work, community health, First Nations studies and nursing. Speakers will include local, national and international researchers. Dr. Liz Bondi, University of Edinburgh, is the international keynote speaker. If you are a student, community member, or researcher with an interest in this symposium, please contact me: thiend@unbc.ca.

  – Summary Report

  
  
• Emotional Geographies, 2^nd International Conference, May 25-27, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

  After participating in the 1^st Emotional Geographies conference in Lancaster, England, in 2002, I'm pleased to be attending this 2^nd conference to speak about my developing research into the emotional geographies of the Royal Canadian Legion. (More on the "Research" page.)

  
  
• Fieldwork

  I look forward to spending much of my summer visiting Legions on Northern Vancouver Island.

  
  
• Moving to California

  In August, I will start a new position as Assistant Professor, Feminist Geography, at California State University, Long Beach (www.csulb.edu/depts/geography).  See you at The Beach!