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Week Six:
For your final post, upload a video presentation or create a written or photographic narrative in which you discuss your project: why did you become interested in this project, what was the goal of the project, what was its significance or impact (real or potential). How did the project evolve or change over the course of these six weeks? Finally, please consider how your understanding of leadership (curiosity, empathy, teamwork, resilience, etc.) has informed your work or been deepened by your work.
I became interested in this project due to my own experiences in my personal and academic life; last summer, I engaged with audiovisual archives a significant amount and I wanted to further explore how these formats can serve as forms of cultural preservation. The project did not necessarily have a goal except furthering my own experience with anthropological fieldwork and I feel more secure in my research interests for future projects. Through this summer's work, my own understanding of leadership has been reinforced as something that requires empathy and curiosity, something that must be focused on the group that's being lead rather than the leader itself; this comes from my work observing acts of community both here and in New York City. A theme that I find myself coming back to this summer is collective memory--the shared experiences, culture, values and beliefs--and personal archives and how the two can sometimes converge. The attached photos are some that I though embodied collective memory, especially through public monuments.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wp2aniwx9PAZjXLz6
Week Six:
For your final post, upload a video presentation or create a written or photographic narrative in which you discuss your project: why did you become interested in this project, what was the goal of the project, what was its significance or impact (real or potential). How did the project evolve or change over the course of these six weeks? Finally, please consider how your understanding of leadership (curiosity, empathy, teamwork, resilience, etc.) has informed your work or been deepened by your work.
One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was creating an "podcast" episode—an interview with Manang Jeanette, one of the original defenders of the I-Hotel. Mikey (the other intern) and I asked her questions regarding her experiences back in the 60s living and working at the I-Hotel; how she developed bonds with the manongs there, how the experience shaped her, etc. We also connected the history of the I-Hotel to the present day, sharing our observations as young people today and how American society has changed/stayed the same since the times when she was our age.
As I was editing the interview, Manang Jeanette's words really touched me even more than when we were recording—I think they truly are so important for our generation to hear. I'm grateful that we were able to engage in meaningful conversation, her words will stay with me forever.
On August 4th, MHF held their commemoration event of the 46th anniversary of the I-Hotel eviction. We first had an gallery exhibit open to the public, then a screening of the restored version of Curtis Choy's documentary The Fall of the I-Hotel, and finally, a community sharing session where community members, including original defenders, shared poetry, excerpts, music, with the audience. It was truly a beautiful, moving event that I'll always remember. Seeing how the legacies of those who fought for the I-Hotel have continued into the present day and are still being carried on gives me a sense of hope, as well as determination to keep sharing the story of the I-Hotel, so that it becomes engrained in our collective memory and never becomes forgotten.
Lastly, my understanding of leadership has undeniably been deepened by my time at MHF this summer. My experiences have shown me that the best leaders are those who maintain a sense of curiosity and humility, not viewing themselves as "above" anyone else. They are deeply empathetic, extending their kindness and generosity to all they work with, as they see how others contribute to their own learning and self growth as well. And of course, they must have resilience, working through barriers to achieve their goals and not being afraid of challenges/getting out of their comfort zone. I hope that I can keep working towards the point of embodying this level of leadership.
Here is a folder with photos I took from the August 4th commemoration event :) Another beautiful thing that came out of this summer is getting more into photography—I'm glad I was able to document our events so they will always be remembered through visual images. Maybe someday they'll be in MHF's archive, and young people will look at them the same way I look at images in the archive from the 60s/70s now.
Hi Rosie! It's so great to read about your transformative time working with the I-Hotel and their leaders; to be able to be in community with people who love and care deeply about each other is always a refreshing experience. I love your photography! It's always so great to be building an archive in real time, whether it's for yourself or for others
Week Five:
What new skills and/or knowledge have you gained from your summer experience? Have you met anyone who has been instrumental in shaping/helping you conduct your project? Briefly, how has this person impacted you? What have you learned about leadership from this individual, and how might it influence your actions, work, and self in the future?
During my time here in Mexico City I've been mainly focusing on improving my skills as a researcher by connecting theory to fieldwork; Dr. Castillo, my project adviser, has been immensely helpful in helping me distinguish which discipline my future endeavors might take and how to integrate my own personal experiences with my research. As I have had the opportunity to engage with his work, my own perspective and definition of collective memory has solidified into something I now see myself engaging with almost every day; it reminds me a lot of my work last summer working with nontraditional archives, archives that exist because of a deep love for a certain topic. This is definitely something I see my future work focusing on; how our own personal archives function as a preservation of culture and memory in ways that formal archives can sometimes lose.
Week Two:
If your project connects with your research from last summer, explain the ways in which it picks up on themes, issues, or questions that are important to you. How are you expanding on your project from last summer? How is your understanding of this topic evolving?
If you are doing a leadership-in-action or community engagement project, how do you interact with community members, and what kind of conversations are you having? How do you connect with this community of people, and what common cause do you find?
My project this summer is very much closely related to my work on the American Diva project last summer in terms of methodology, as a significant portion of the research takes place online; last summer I was investigating different portrayals of 'diva', most of which were available through online archives that were created as fan service, while this summer I have been looking into online forms of cultural and linguistic preservation. For the first two weeks, I’ve focused mainly on becoming familiar with the methodology and history of digital ethnography in order to better understand my place as a researcher—a ‘non-digital-centric’ approach, though the term might seem paradoxical, focuses on the ways that media and technology are embedded into our everyday lives, following users offline and online. There are also a lot of variant terms for digital diasporas and digital ethnography (such as net-diasporas, web-diasporas, netnography, cyber ethnography, and so on), so it's been interesting to see how certain disciplines use these specific terms.
Week Three:
What does a typical day look like this summer? Aside from a narrative description, upload a photo, video and/or other media submission!
My advising professor is quite flexible about my research, so aside from meeting twice a week to discuss what I’ve been reading, my days normally start at around 9-10am, I go for a walk, eat breakfast, and take the bus to UNAM which is about 30 minutes away. During our meetings my professor will give me specific books and articles to read as well as videos to review and transcribe, so the majority of my day is spent doing that in the library or at the Institute for Anthropological research, where his office is located. On the weekends I usually spend time with family and I love going to the different markets and museums here in Mexico City. This is a photo I took of one of the main markets, La plaza la fuente del dragón, and some sweet stuffed animals :)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6RAKEkJ4V46ivCjH8
Week Four:
What challenges and/or difficulties have you encountered and how did you go about resolving them? Speak to a specific challenge you have encountered and some of the ways that you tackled the problem
One challenge that I’ve encountered is understanding Spanish at an academic level—though I am fluent conversationally, there are often times where I feel like an important concept has gone over my head–reading primary sources and academic papers can prove a bit difficult, especially since some academic concepts are hard to understand even in English. As far as tackling this problem, what I’ve found works the best for me is to skim read a paragraph and then slowly go over each word to make sure that my I am not misunderstanding any sentiments or phrases and I’ve also been reading a book of short stories in Spanish to help with my reading comprehension.
Week One:
As you set out on your research or community engagement project, do you find yourself experiencing any worries or insecurities about saying something that’s already been said? How do we as researchers and/or volunteers learn to address or set aside those insecurities or, better yet, to use them to our advantage?
If your project this summer differs from your project last summer, has last summer’s project influenced your project this year, and if so how? If your project is different, what tools have you developed to help you work on this project?
For my project this summer, I am working with the Anthropology department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, focusing on sociolinguistic studies and how culture can be conserved through language. Though this project is in a different discipline than my work on the American Diva project last summer, which focused on gender and sexuality, they both aim to emphasize the importance of linguistics in our own perceptions of culture; my experience last summer has given me the tools to more critically investigate seemingly innocuous uses of language and putting media into a broader sociopolitical context. It also allowed me to discover the ways that language and media can influence our daily lives and how important my own lived experiences can to take into account when conducting research; it is through my own lived experiences that I have observed how instrumental the internet can be for linguistic and cultural preservation. To answer the first question as well, I think that the desire to be completely original is one that can be dangerous when conducting research--nothing that we say or write is in a vacuum and we must acknowledge the work of those who come before us as we enter the conversation. Especially when considering fields like anthropology or gender studies, our own lived experiences can often be the motivation for research and it's important to acknowledge how and why these experiences have become a driving force. This personal motivation is something I consider to be a great advantage when conducting research as it allows for a nuanced perspective and great interest in the subject.