Cara this is such an astute observation! I’m so grateful that you could bring this to my attention and to the attention of our community. This idea of bias in linguistic curricula and economic determinism is especially important now in the face of extreme dehumanization of immigrants and international students in this country.  This example shows the depth of this dehumanization while highlighting how we put people into boxes of economic determinism that supersedes any supposed “meritocracy.” I’m also curious if we can look at this from an intersectional lens as well. I couldn’t help but notice that the first textbook made for Latin American immigrants has two lines that say, “Can he drive a car” and “Can Luisa take care of children.” This shows that the text is assuming that Latin American women will get jobs where they have to do caretaking tasks and Latin American men will get jobs where they’re required to drive. I’m curious if you think in your more informed opinion whether, beyond this small sample, there is any linguistic and economic determinism based on gender within this greater determinism. I’m really excited about your work and can't wait to see what you will do! Do you have any ideas for future projects about this? Do you think you’ll incorporate this into your second summer?

Hi Kamtoya! It’s really interesting what you were saying about how creation myths heavily overshadow destruction myths. For me, this is reminiscent of the denial of destruction we have in our society from climate change to global armed conflict. I’m curious how the retelling of myth reflects and shapes our denial of real destruction. 

At the same time, I’m curious how these destruction myths shape and alter the connotations of destruction in our society and cross-culturally. While destruction in current events is horrible, there may be other types of destruction that are actually regenerative. Where I’m from in Oregon, there are really bad wildfires that sometimes even spread to residential areas and towns. Part of the reason the issue is so severe is because for a long time firefighters tried to put out every fire that arose. After some of the worst fires which displaced a lot of people, the towns started finally listening to Indigenous community leaders in the region who advocated for small controlled burns which wipe out dead vegetation undergrowth. These small fires before peak fire season limit the amount of available vegetation to burn in a real wildfire and limit its spread. This practice has been conducted in Native American communities for generations. All of this to say that the Western/European view of destruction as only bad can actually lead to a lot of issues, and I’m really curious about how different cultures view destruction in their myths.

For the project, the music is being used for emotional learning. In my social neuroscience class last semester, we learned how emotion varies by region and culture, but a lot of researchers don’t agree on how emotion actually works and how to classify these differences. Because of this, I think people’s reaction to the music may vary by culture, but I’m not exactly sure how. At the same time, the music I’m using is a little unique because it invokes the sonata form from classical music while also drawing from traditional Russian music and the avant-garde. I think the first step to addressing this issue in my research is being honest about it like you said. I’m hoping once I finish this project and solidify whether the psychological effects exist and how they work, I can use the second summer to hopefully learn about music from more regions/cultures and hopefully apply this music to future research. Thank you so much for your insightful comment!

I really appreciate your commitment to ethical research and building trust in your community. It’s especially interesting to hear your perspective because I do STEM research with human participants, which is quite different, but I also had to be trained with the IRB. This is part of the reason I like the interdisciplinary nature of the Laidlaw program because it really draws us beyond our own individual disciplines to connect us with other exemplary students who implement ethical research practices in different ways from ourselves. Your work with interviews emphasizes ethics by building community connections, which is a perspective that I’m very interested in learning more about. That said, no matter the format or discipline of our collective research, we both share in our duty to respect the dignity and humanity of our research participants first. Thank you for your lovely post!

I really appreciate hearing about science communication from a different perspective from my own as a STEM researcher. I’ve faced a similar challenge as I’m diving into a field that I don’t specialize in: technology and AI. When I first met with my mentors about the AI component of the project, we didn’t know if the music technology resources I needed existed yet let alone were accessible. We eventually found something that was perfect for the project which had open access, but the only way this was possible was through going over a multitude of resources in the Columbia Library system, many of which would be paywalled to the public. Going from a first-generation, low income college student from a small town in Oregon to a student at Columbia was kind of a resource shock. I went from being in an under-resourced situation to having an over-abundance of academic resources. One of my fears is that I’ll forget what it’s like to not have all the academic resources I want at my fingertips. I think one of the many benefits of the Laidlaw program is the opportunity to have these interdisciplinary conversations with many talented scholars. Thank you so much Cara for using this platform to talk about science communication!

I really appreciate your description of oral history as a 'leading-beside’ experience because it emphasizes the reciprocal relationship you are building with the community, while recognizing the interviewee is also a leader. I love your oral history idea because oral history helps preserve knowledge that’s undergone erasure in traditional western written history. Your work is especially interesting within the context of literacy because, with declining literacy rates in NYC that you highlighted in your outline, oral history is an amazing way to share stories of students that may have been overlooked or misinterpreted in the past. How will you create questions for this, and what are you most curious about? I’m really excited to learn more about your project!