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Rachel Cason
- Title
- PhD candidate, Sociology
- Location
- Lincoln
Biography
I chose this area of research because of my own interest in the area stemming from my expatriate childhood as a Third Culture Kid, and because I could see a significant gap in migration literature where the experiences of expatriate children were simply not discussed. It seemed to me that expatriate children had something important to add to the discourse around migratory belonging and identity, so I set out to lend a platform to their stories.
2008 Sociology Prize Winner, and Student of the Year Award winner
2009 Awarded 3 years Economic and Social Research Council funding for PhD studies.
Research and scholarship
Thesis Title: ‘Third Culture Kids’: A Case Study in Nomadic Identities, Place, and Transnational Belonging
Through life stories I'm exploring the implications of an expatriate, Third Culture Kid, childhood on adult experiences of identity, belonging, and relationship to place.
Further information
I would like to see available an independent mentoring service for Third Culture Kid returnees, and their families - to support them, for as long as needed, through the adjustments inherent in moving between, and embedding into multiple cultures.
Interest areas include: TCK research, advocacy & adult TCK resourcing.
Publications
Publications and presentations
• Postgraduate Conference at Keele 2009: “Third Culture Kids: Another Mode of Migration”
• African Studies at Keele Group 2010: “Third Culture Kids: In Niger but not of Niger”
• Postgraduate Conference at Keele 2011: “The Internet as Method: Researching Geographically Dispersed Populations”
• Social Sciences Lunchtime Seminar at Keele, June 2011: 'The identity of the researcher and getting at the truth'
Media Work
• EuroTCK Forum, Spain, April 2010: “Third Culture Kid Stress: Presentation of Initial Research and Findings""
• Global Connections TCK Forum, Birmingham, 2010: “Beyond School: What About Adult Third Culture Kids?” - presented initial findings from analysis. Also asked to present my own TCK story.
• EuroTCK Forum, Germany, April 2013: "TCKs and Relationships" and “Adult TCK Identity" to be both co-presented.
Coming up
• Global Connections TCK Forum, Birmingham, October 213: “Nurturing a Healthy TCK Identity”, to be co-presented
