Blogs

I wanted to go back to Maria Lugones article about world traveling after thinking about this concept in our daily lives. I recall in class when we did a comparison between world traveling and code switching through investigating their differences. In short, some aspects of world traveling included being present and listening, a goal of being at ease, and participating and observing in a open and accepting environment. We discussed code switching as a product and knowing what is expected and trying to fit into a particular situation instead of experiencing it with fewer predefined expectations. Lugones' idea of traveling between many worlds presents an idea similar to code switching but with different intentions: "Those of us who are "world"-travellers have the distinct experience of being different in different "worlds" and of having the capacity to remember other "worlds" and ourselves in them" (11). Through experiencing these different worlds, world travellers are able to be comfortable and expose themselves to many different environments and experiences shifts in their personality and ways they act. Lugones emphasizes that these are often not conscious and happen naturally due to the environment they are in (11). This differes from code swtiching where there are often active attempts to change oneself to fit into a situation. After reading this article and thinking about it in the context of daily experiences, there are many instances of code switching that happen regularly and shape the way we learn, act, and are perceived by others.

At the end of our class on last Thursday, Anne asked if we cared about the characters in the book. Acutually this is also my question. I felt that we put our focus mainly on the language during our class discussion, reading this book as a ‘textbook’ for an English course, trying to get something out of the writing style. Did we really ‘taste’ its taste? Or we just ‘analyzed’ its taste? To tell the truth, reading by only paying attention to the language itself seems a ‘cold’ way of reading for me. Analyzing the writing style of a book is definitely an important part of reading experience, but language, no matter how beautiful it is, is used to express people’s emotions.

Binh, not fluent in French, not upper class, not well educated, is a Vietnamese exile. He is the colonized in the land of the colonizer–an outsider in a way that Stein and Toklas can never quite understand. In Paris, Binh’s identity is reduced to his skin:

Part 2: http://youtu.be/VgLdnvKqlgU
Part 3: http://youtu.be/hunYSIHv34s

This past week my group presented about "NGOs in Ghana." On the topic of Millennium Develpment Goals, I said how Ghana was on track to accomplish their MDGs by 2015. With consideration to the time limit I was unable to go in depth on Ghana's specific progress on the MDGs so I will expound more on it here:

Over the past few weeks I have been studying NGOs in Ghana.  I was not very surprised by the information that I learned by specifically looking at Ghana but I was surprised by the role of NGOs on an international level.  The first question I wanted to learn when I was assigned this topic is what exactly is the role of an NGO?  Why does its name only describe a thing that it is not? Couldn’t there have been a more descriptive title than “non-governmental”.  I was interested to see how people in our class would respond to being asked to describe NGOs in one word.  I was not surprised that it was difficult for people to do because NGOs cover such a wide variety of interests.  Depending on the area of need, NGOs will help with poverty, healthcare, childcare, nutrition, microfinance, and education. 

Group A: Alice Fischer BMC, Kelsey Harris BMC, Jasmine Brown PW, Sharock Griffen PW

Group B: Ambrosia Johnson BMC, Rachel Kutten BMC, Tracey Hinnant PW, Sereanna Hughes PW

Group C: Brenna Healy BMC, Sonia Giebel HC, Brandy Jones PW, Kelly Klot PW

Group D: Christine Calderon BMC, Grace Loudon BMC, Quadirah Lindsay PW, Laniesha Love PW

Group E: Emma Rosenblum BMC, William Garrett HC, William McAden PW, Charmice McClain PW

Group F: Eva Sarma BMC, Jess Garner BMC, Baseemah Mitchell t PW, Michael Montgomery PW

Group G: Ellen Vari BMC, Roldine Richard BMC, Emani Outterbridge PW, Brittney Palmer PW

Group H: Raminta Holden BMC, Farrah Khan BMC, Stephon Sessoms PW, Charnelle Suber PW

Group I: Lindsey Darvin BMC, Hannah Davis HC,  Asia White PW, Zaneerah Wilson PW

Group J: Sarah Lovegren BMC, Yecica Urena BMC, Randall Wilson PW,  Travon WilliamsPW

I talked very briefly with Professor Franklin the other day about my experience in this class. I told him that I often find myself very opinionated and biased coming into class, and very confused going out. I told him it reminded me of entropy. But beyond that, it reminded me of a text we read in my ESEM last semester, called The Library of Babel, written originally in Spanish by Jorge Luis Borges. The main idea he had was that the Universe is filled with these hexagonal rooms, a representation of the amalgamation of the knowledge that everyone knows. One of the things I picked up from the text, is the whole notion that any attempt to establish order will always result in more chaos and disorder. He said, "Other men, inversely, thought that the primary task was to eliminate useless works. They would invade the hexagons, exhibiting credentials which were not always false, skim through a volume with annoyance, and then condemn entire bookshelves to destruction: their ascetic, hygenic fury is responsible for the senseless loss of millions of books. Their name is execrated; but those who mourn the "treasures" destroyed by this frenzy, overlook two notorious facts. One: the Library is so enormous that any reduction undertaken by humans is infinitesimal."

This weekend, please post as a comment here your proposal for the remainder  of our semester's work together. Begin with a paragraph or two of a mid-semester evaluation of how we're doing in learning together:
what's working? What needs working on? What should we keep, of our shared practices? What might we change up?

Turn then from questions of "form" to those of "content": What evolving genres would you choose to explore, if the remainder of the class were an independent study? What do you recommend our exploring together? Why? (i.e. how do your selections expand/extend/challenge what we have already done?)

I have two more weeks of material planned for after break (wiggle room, to order new books, do some course planning), but we will select material together for NINE [AS YET UNPLANNED] CLASSES.

This weekend, please add as a "new comment" here your proposal for the remainder  of our semester's work together. Begin with a paragraph or two of a mid-semester evaluation of how we're doing in learning together:
what's working? What needs working on? What should we keep, of our shared practices? What might we change up?

Turn then from questions of "form" to those of "content": What other genres, geographies, forms of gender or sexuality studies would you like to explore, if the remainder of the class were an independent study? What do you recommend our exploring together? How action-based or action-directed do you want our work to be? Say "why" in answer to each of these questions (i.e. how do your selections expand/extend/challenge what we have already done?).

I have two more weeks of material planned for after break (wiggle room, to order new books, do some course planning), but we will spend next week selecting material together for NINE [AS YET UNPLANNED] CLASSES.

Just in case you've been waiting breathlessly for a link that works,
you can now find Luce Irigaray's essay on "This Sex Which Is Not One"
@ http://picard.montclair.edu/%7Elorenzj/unisinos/irigaray-sexnotone.pdf .

At the end of class today, we started talking about what the Statrapi’s comics mean.  We talked about images of death from a child’s perspective and how pictures can convey this message.  These types of conversations are hard for me because finding meaning in art has always been difficult/impossible for me.  I didn’t understand why I struggle to find meaning until I read Understanding Comics.  McCloud drew a beautiful continuum from reality to meaning (p. 52-53).  If I think of my life as grounded in reality, then it follows that my life has little meaning, no?  This explains why I don't "get" art in the way that is often expected of me.  McCloud helped me again by explicitly saying what art means.