I was born in South Africa in 1957 within an apartheid-styled social life, where contact with Black people was limited to experiencing Blackness as associated with their servicing of White people. Nevertheless, from my early teens I do recall walks with my father in the suburbs of Johannesburg, where he tried to connect with Black people we met along the way - by speaking a Zulu that he had self-taught himself through diligent study of the Zulu Old Testament (which he could compare with his knowledge of it in Hebrew). His efforts at creating sentences in Zulu met with a very warm response. I can vividly remember the positive energies created by these exchanges, which I believe had a lasting impact on me. Looking back, I realize that social spaces were being created for "alternative" kinds of social relationships. My way of approaching my university studies (I have a D. Litt et Phil degree in Sociology, 1986) reflected my concern with creating human connections which bypass rigid social categorizations. My concern has also been with researching social life in a way which can serve to activate such connections (while also co-considering possibilities for improving life chances of those who are socially marginalized). In various geographical venues where I have worked (for example, South Africa, Swaziland, the UK, and Cyprus) I have sought ways of exploring this potentiality via active research inquiries.My books and articles and research reporting, which can mostly be found by doing a google search on Norma RA Romm, express my efforts to engage (with others) in meaningful research that can make a difference to the quality of social life. I would love anyone reading (or considering reading) my books to contact me for further discussion at: norma.romm@gmail.com