Miss Charlotte Seegers

(she/they)

Research

My PhD explores the intersection between childfree women lives and endurance cycling with the method of video-ethnography.

Research on women and cycling often portrays a narrow figure of women cyclists—risk-averse and constrained by caregiving responsibilities. Following Irigaray’s call to speak as women rather than of them, this research seeks to broaden the imagination of who count as a woman cyclist—and as a woman more generally.

To explore this, I am developing a research video method that is collaborative and crafty where the participant and I stitch together scenes that we filmed collaboratively in order to delve into nuanced understandings of gender, chrononormativity, relationality, and embodiment. This approach follows Deleuzian cinema theory, which insists on emergence through montage as a quality in itself: a film is not a succession of still photographs, but rather the juxtaposition of scenes that creates affective intensities worthy of analysis. The process is also grounded in care and trust, for the researched and the researcher alike.

A 30-minute film, My Bike, My Baby, is currently in progress. Notably, although the film emerges from an academic context, it is intentionally witty, fast-paced, and openly dramatic. It prioritises emotion and connection over abstraction in order to provoke emotional resonance and open academic conversations to a much wider audience.

Teaching

Undergraduate year 2: Qualitative Methods

Undergraduate year 3: Mobilities

Biography

My research interests span mobility, gender, sports studies, and creative methods. I hold an MSc in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London (2013–2014), and an MSc in Social Science Research Methods from Cardiff University (2023–2024). Between these periods, I worked as a documentary filmmaker and video ethnographer, living in France, the UK, and Portugal. In addition to my work as a research student, I am now a graduate tutor at Cardiff University.

Honours and awards

• RGS-IBG Annual International Conference: Paper selection for presentation, Racing Whilst Female. August 2024
• Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britian: Scholarship for Summer School “Utopias, Axioms, Science Fiction: A Quest for Educational Imaginaries.” June 2024
• ESRC Scholarship, issued by UKRI - UK Research and Innovation. Sep 2023 
• Universidade NOVA de Lisboa: Book photographer and contributor: A cidade Para Quem. Jan 2023
• Netflix Streaming Platform: Film broadcast, She's french. 2017
• Vision du Reel film festival Doc outlook: Short film selection: Immediate Response. 2015
• Goldsmiths University of London: Paul Watson Price for best film of academic year. June 2014. 
• MSc Visual Anthropology Distinction, Goldsmiths University. Sep 2014.