research-l Mailing List: Re: Welcoming 13 new folks to our (Cohousing Research Network) listserv!

[Almut Klara Zieher (azieher]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Almut Zieher, I am finishing up my PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of New Mexico. I research cognitive and emotional processes of learning. Right now I’m studying how skills and principles of mindfulness may reflect a learning process for altering automatic (or implicitly) learned behaviors. I have an interest in quantitative methods that looks at individuals’ change over time to better understand learning and how to influence it. I also use qualitative methods to inform training and theory development. I am currently on the job hunt for an academic position where I can continue my research and teach others how to conduct educational research. 

I am connected to the communities movement and am considering my role in social (in)justice, which I see inextricably linked and highly related to my research. Community living, valuing every human, holding each other accountable, considering the sustainability of our practices all require us to interact with others effectively and to manage our own reactions; more importantly they all require us to behave in ways that are contrary to how we’ve been socialized. I’m sure most of you have had the experience of acting contrary to your values (if not, you might be superhuman or, more likely, not aware of this phenomena yet). In our society we assume that if we believe or know something our behaviors will follow, but that’s not how our brain works. We’ll behave in the ways we’ve been socialized; the things we’ve learned primarily through implicit means such as watching others or having positive bias toward what is familiar (e.g. ableism, racial bias toward whiteness) and negative bias toward what isn’t (e.g. racial bias, cultural bias). Seeing it this way helps make it not personal. It’s how our brains work that have perpetuate the systems we’re familiar with. However, this doesn’t take away our responsibility to figure out how to go against the automatic responses that our experiences have wired into our brain. 

I’ve joined this network, because I’d like to contribute to the communities research somehow, or integrate/collaborate with others. I have pretty strong methodological skills that are applicable to any domain. Ultimately, my work and my life are my contribution to the world, it’s the best I’ve got to give. I’m not sure what that will look like. My life trajectory has always been a bit of a surprise to me and, although my training is restricting the direction my path can take to some degree, I’m also aware that my skillset is not so narrow that I need to close doors. I also believe that it is time to work more inter-disciplinarily. It’s going to take a lot of perspectives and creativity to deal with the challenges we face on this planet.  

I look forward to hearing more about the research that others are doing, especially if it remotely relates to my interest in inter- and intra- personal phenomena or quantitative modeling (regression, multilevel modeling, SEM).

Warmly,

Almut

Almut Zieher, MA

She, Her, Hers

PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology

University of New Mexico
azieher [at] unm.edu

On Dec 14, 2018, at 1:01 PM, Neil Planchon <neil [at] swansway.com> wrote:

Hello everyone (Now 118 of us!) and Happy December/Holidays.

As has been my custom, I am welcoming new folks to the list!

Janice Chen
Belinda Milnes
Graham Meltzer
Mel Stone
Dermot O’Reilly
Nicolas Francart
Almut Zieher
Linda Wilson
Kari Kalinich
Matt Daly
Nicolas Francart
Andreas Hatzimichai
George Lindsey

Welcome one and all.  We’d love to learn about you.  Please take a moment to introduce yourselves, tell us where you live, your interests and what connects you to Cohousing and the Cohousing Research Network.

We always love to hear what folks have interest in learning about and what you might be interested in contributing.

We look forward to hearing from you!
Neil and the Cohousing Research Network team
www.cohousingresearchnetwork.org



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