Stripping to Pay My Tuition

[slampokes]

...it's almost to that point.

I will try to keep this short and sweet, both to spare you a lengthy sob story, and to avoid giving myself a panic attack that lands me in the hospital (again).

As some of you know, and many of you don't, I am currently working on my masters in anthropology. My studies involve an in-depth analysis of classist and racist attitudes in Britain (in particularly, in Glasgow, Scotland) and I've been working in this area since 2006. I'm working with young, urban, disenfranchised populations to unpack and untangle the definitions that have been applied to them in post-industrial fallout. This project is an in-depth analysis of identity, labels and insults applied, adapted and reproduced in what remains to be a classist and racist society.

My work is based in applied, action anthropology, taking the power out of the hands of the policymakers and powers that be and redistributing the power to be defined, and self-define, back into the hands of marginalized peoples. I want the results of this project to be highly accessible, readable and understandable to everyone involved - free of jargon and superiority that defines much of this academic canon.

It would be my pleasure to share my full thesis proposal with you and field any questions about the project, so ask away.

Recently, I lost a huge part of my funding when the staff (myself included, as a teaching assistant) at the university were put into a strike position. A strike was avoided by reappropriating funds... and those devoted to my project, and several others, were eliminated. So we won the battle, and I am very much losing the war. So I am looking at almost two months of fieldwork where I will not be able to eat, I do not have a solid place to stay, and I have little to no ability to travel to conduct research with the marginalized peoples I'm working alongside. But, simply put, if I don't get over there and make this, my dream, happen... the last few years vanish, down the drain. I'm fucked.

At the risk of sounding completely wishy-washy, I am being completely honest when I say that at 25, this is my life's work. This is my passion, this is what I lose sleep over, and this is the biggest part of what I want to leave behind and the mark that I want to make on the world. The thought that this might not come into fruition because of bullshit politics and red tape is nothing short of paralyzing. I NEED your help.

By all means, if you've only got a few bucks to spare, please give it to Keith and Chemda first. But if you've got even pennies more than that, I am really, really in a difficult place right now. Below is a link to donate to my PayPal.

I've never felt more pathetic or desperate in my whole life. But this project is ME, and I will stop at no length to get this work done and these questions answered. So I am putting myself out there, and begging you for a bit of a hand.

Many thanks, with my tail between my legs,
Sam

Sam's Emergency Research Fund - Combating Racism among Youth in Contemporary Britain