Meet PhD candidate Elise Frost
Elise Frost (she/her) is a settler scholar and PhD candidate in the discipline of Geography and Planning, living on Gadigal Country.
Elise Frost – PhD candidate story
Her research interests are primarily centred around diverse values for urban outdoor spaces and how those values are developed and lived by people, as well as how they are shaped by structures and institutions.
Before coming to academia, she worked in public domain facilities management and saw, from that firsthand perspective, how urban outdoor spaces are contested and imagined in multifarious ways. Now she is looking at the same issues from an academic point of view.
Research topic summary
My PhD research explores how LGBTQIA+ people in Sydney engage in intercorporeal placemaking through outdoor exercise.
Our bodies are the material with which we experience the world and so I’m interested in how moving those bodies in urban outdoor spaces makes LGBTQIA+ people feel about themselves, other bodies (of people, other beings, and even structural and institutional bodies) and of course the spaces and places where the exercise is happening.
Additionally, I’m exploring what constraints affect LGBTQIA+ people’s access to outdoor exercise and whether, and how, those constraints differ from the broader community.
Internship benefits
I was keen to work on another project so that my PhD wasn’t the sole focus of my work life – I like to have different things on the go. Also, I was interested in applying my research skills in a non-academic arena. I enjoy writing from a policy perspective, and it was great to have the opportunity to practice that skill.
Internship project and report
I conducted a small research project on perceptions of safety among LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people using public transport in Sydney. I accompanied participants on public transport journeys for go-along interviews and wrote a report on the results. After completing the report, I presented the results.
Challenges
The biggest challenge was the independent nature of the project. I worked fully remotely and was solely responsible for all aspects of the project, including participant recruitment, data collection, and the content of the report. Coming from an academic environment that is quite collaborative with lots of informal chats in the office, I found it challenging to only have formally organised online meetings to discuss the progress of my work. I realised that working totally remotely isn’t really for me!
Internship reflections
It was great to try out a new method of collecting data using go-along interviews. They were not only fun, but being there with participants to see things from their point of view was super insightful and I will use the go-along method again in future.