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Across the Pond: Columbia and Oxford
From 2023 to 2024! DEI and cross-cultural solidarity between student organizations at Columbia University and the University of Oxford.
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Columbia UniversityExperts Like Kelly Aika Yoshimura
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Post #3
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 of the biggest challenges I am facing here is actually the substantial restrictions on accessing humanities-based resources or centers. It's changed how I view my work and how I understand cultural exchange as well, and I've learned so much from speaking with archivists, librarians, performers, and other cultural/knowledge workers in China.
Since COVID-19, cultural and knowledge-based exchanges between the U.S. and China have been incredibly difficult. Some spaces, such as universities, are under COVID-19 restrictions, which makes it incredibly difficult -- if not impossible at times -- to access the cultural centers, performance venues, or libraries there. This means that foreigners are sometimes completely restricted from accessing these spaces. For example, to access a film venue and their repository of posters/scripts/filmmaking resources, I had to request a letter of invitation from a local institution (I'm thankful to the Global Center here for helping me). Even after I completed these procedures, because they weren't able to find anything in their internal catalogue that aligned with my visit request, I was denied entry. I'm a little sad in moments like this, but I understand the tight restrictions especially given the severity of the ongoing pandemic. Even outside of the pandemic, the restrictions on research have historically posed a challenge to foreign students like me. It's helped me understand the limitations on knowledge access and cultural preservation that people working in these fields face, and it motivates me to learn more about ways we could share knowledge and connect. In the meantime, I'm doing my best to address this challenge by seeking publicly-accessible venues or institutions, such as museums (which are completely free here), smaller performance venues (such as temples), or memorial halls.
One project I got to work on early in my time here was a contribution to Azine, a NYC-based Asian American arts collective. I contributed a spread about Beijing Opera featuring some of the photos I've taken here along with information about the tradition, and culture workers in NYC who continue to perform Beijing Opera (i.e. the director of the gallery I work at). The zine is being edited and will be printed soon, and I'm excited for it to be shared in my community. I'll post a picture I used for this zine in my next post!
Hi Ari! I was interested by your experience straddling a precarious political, cultural, and academic space while in China as a foreigner. Obviously the greater relations between the US and China during Covid seem to impact even the micro-interactions you’ve had with various institutional representatives. I wonder if these sentiments are shared amongst the Chinese academics and to what degree, since I know the sharing of knowledge and information is every a bit a political and academic action.
I admire your dedication to education and providing tangible lesson plans for student to participate in, especially to something so pertinent. As someone who considers education to be a great equalizer, encouraging youth from communities directly impacted by pollution to address the issue allows for such an incredibly unique commitment and passion towards environmental justice.
GSBTB sounds like a great organization and I am impressed with how much of a cultural hub it seems to be to the Berlin community. I’m looking forward to hearing more about your interactions with your classes and wondering about their approaches to music as well as their inspirations for their own future.
I am so fascinated by your project, especially from a socio-linguistic perspective! Your observations with your supervisor and the song-writing contest were particularly affirming of language as a political and cultural statement. I wonder how the actual song writers feel about this topic and whether they share the same sentiments or if they provide a different take on the subject.
Hi! I’m impressed with your quick adaptability despite the physical circumstances! The qualitative aspect of your project sounds especially interesting, and I’m looking forward to reading about how different responses were outside of the US. Hopefully your interviews and quantitative analysis go well! Having the opportunity to speak with actual professionals and experts on Covid must be such an experience, especially since we’ve been seeing a spike in covid numbers (at least in the US).
This is so important! Your post reminds me of the importance of community building and bridging the gap between government agencies and non-profits as they distribute resources and information to people, including the difficulty of making government aid accessible to residents, whether it’s by navigating paperwork, bureaucracies or acquiring information that can save lives.
"There is no reflection, there is no improvement" is such an incredible quote, I really appreciate the research you're conducting in your project, particularly focusing on a topic as significant as the war on drugs. Accessibility is a key issue in so much academia especially as it pertains to minority groups, and I agree that the first step towards harm reduction, and ultimately reform, begins with accessibility of information.
1. A challenge that I’ve encountered is defining the word diva. Part of my research is finding toys and products from the 2010s that embody or promote diva-ness. This has allowed me to reexamine what being a diva means, and investigate what “type” of diva has been pushed towards certain generations versus others. Initially, this portion of the project was challenging for me because I was only searching for toys, ads, and other media and products for things that explicitly stated diva. There wasn’t much to go off of, so I had to redefine what diva actually meant. In the 2010s, being a diva was about being sassy and chasing fame, which is a stark difference from the definition in the 90s where being a diva meant owning your individuality, being outspoken, and embracing diversity. Using this, I was able to find more products and media that related to diva-ness, but didn’t explicitly state diva in them. Instead, they had many qualities of being a diva, as their products and ads boasted buzz words like “stardom”, “sassy”, and “fashionista”. This has shaped the larger picture of my research because not only am I getting to relive my childhood by examining girlhood in the 21st century, but I am really exploring the deeper meanings behind the shift in the word and nature of divas, and how that has shaped an entire generation of young women. Being a diva has become something negative when it used to be empowering.
2. I have found Google Scholar to be particularly useful.
I find your research regarding the change in diva as a concept to be very relevant as so many people have a changing perception of healthy girlhood development, even now. There are so many greater factors that combine in order to provide an understanding of this shift, so I'm looking forward to what you find and how the media reacted to these new definitions.