I am a visiting scholar from Germany at the Free University of Berlin, Critical Institute of Psychology and work on a research project which deals with the intersection of racism and feminism.

The working title of that work is: Constructions of Otherness Within White Feminist Discourses Under Conditions of Postcolonial Migration. I am trying to look at the situation in Germany and the US to see how sociopolitical aspects influence the discourses and the work of non profit organisations as well as the academic work.

The target group for my interviews is at this point still very open. I am interested in talking with women who are members of the non-dominant culture in various ways. That might be women of color, lesbians, migrants, immigrants, sex-workers, differently abled, women who have been imprisoned, etc.. I am also interested in talking to women who work as staff members of non-profit organisations or other professionals who deal with issues related to my field of interest. At another point I will interview academics who have produced popular work in the named field (migration, construction of otherness, whiteness) to see if and how the work of activists or NGOs and academics are profiting from each other. I am contacting you because I was hoping to find interview partners through your organisation. The interviews will be tape recorded, all data will be anonymised and the conversations will take half an hour or longer depending on the time and interest of the interview partner. They can take place at a location of convenience of the interviewee. Thank you very much for your help. - Martina

Since you are in San Francisco, I would like to suggest NGOs in the Bay Area. For instance, there is:

• The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
• Center for Third World Organizing, whose constituents are primarily people of color. They are based in Oakland.
• The Global Fund for Women - they are U.S. based and work with women around the world, so they might be less appropriate for your research. They are actually based in Menlo Park, CA.
• The Young Women's Work Project, whose constituents are primarily people of color.
• Asian Pacific Islanders for Reproductive Health.

That's a start. In general, I think what you will find is that there are constituency specific groups - i.e., for Asian women, Black women, young women, lesbians. I think this subdividing is in response to a greater need for direct service. Though umbrella groups are great, especially for coalescing a movement, they can't serve everyone. Therefore, issue specific and constituency specific groups have arose in response to this.

—Amy