How do you study identity well?
The class I’m taking on Language and Identity had an interesting guest speaker today, talking about womens’ identity and how it changes (as does their partner’s) when they deal with breast cancer. She is a linguist, so she studies language, conversation, narrative–how identity is expressed and comes about through language. Her dissertation work was on Alzheimer’s, and how people grapple with their own personal narratives as they lose their memory. Very interesting work. During the Q&A afterwards we got into a conversation about how diagnosis of disease is a cultural practice, which was fascinating. We live inside the box of our rational, western medicine, yet how we address sickness and disease is a cultural act. Yes it’s based on some good science some of the time. But there is much more than “pure science” in how we address disease.
I’m interested in the idea of identity, especially in classrooms and schools. But I am not a linguist and never will be. Are there other good ways of studying identity besides discourse analysis? Analyzing the language itself is exceedingly interesting, but I’m more inclined to sociological methods of study, such as ethnography, surveys, interviews. But it seems like studies of identity are all too often strong on philosophy and weak on actual evidence and empirical work. What are some exemplary studies of identity, especially nationalism and the identity of immigrants? With a bit of luck, my final paper for the class will lead me to some of these studies.