Indian Student Association(ISA)
Anonymous Student
(ready to use)
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About the ethnographer
Unit Keywords
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kw use, kw existence, kw events, kw functioning |
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Rationale of the Unit
What subculture have you chosen to research and why? What do you know about this group and what do you want to know? List your intial research questions.
I decided to research the Indian Student Association (ISA) that promotes cultural awareness among members and other university students. It doesnot focus on any particular religion but on Indians on the whole. Its aim is to provide students with the means to educate, communicate, organize and socialize.
I choose this organisation because i am a member of it and thougth that it would be easier for me to learn more about it. I also believe that if you are a member of something then you should know about it inside out. There are also a number of things that i want to know about it. I wanted to know when this organisation was formed? Who all founded it? what was the purpose behind it? What are its goals ,events and use in the future? How does it run and who funds it?
What do the members and other people think about it, where it lags and what are its benefits? How does it effect the students academically, socially and mentally? How do they decide on which all events they should have in a year? Who all are involved in organising the events? Is it divided in parts and are the individual groups incharge of different things or do they work as a team, altogether?
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Project diary
1)purpose
2)who,when,why
3)funds
4)goals
5)effects on students
6)benefits
11/11/03
Introduction-
The Indian Student Association promotes cultural awareness among members and other students of the university. It aims at providing the students with the means to educate, communicate, organize and socialize. It is an effective way of uniting all the Indians on campus from different religions and cultures. They come together and celebrate festivals and other events. Meeting people of the same culture and nationality helps us to relate to them in a better manner. It also makes us feel at home when we see a similar kind of atmosphere of people who not only look and talk like us but also have the same values and believes.
The ISA keeps on organizing events from time to time so that its member's don't miss anything done back home and can keeping performing their rituals and customs. It is also very useful for those Indians who were not born and brough up in India. They can attend the meetings organized by ISA and get to know more about their country and its traditional values. In most of the ISA events the students generally wear Indian clothes, have Indian food, and listen to Hindi music. All these things are artifacts that instill a spirit of being "an Indian".
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Research Plan
Discuss your initial research method. How will you begin to seek out answers to your research questions? Where will you begin taking field notes? Who are you considering as a possible informant?
I will begin to seek out answers by getting to know more about the Indian Student Association. I will do this by visiting their website, going for their meetings, by consulting other members and also talking to the student's board. I would also be taking field notes in its meetings and other events. I think taking field notes really helps us to observe better and thus have a more detailed research. I will also try to get information from the library and also online. I will try to fix an appointment with one of the board members so that I can get the inside picture of the organization. It would help me learning more about its existence. Till the time i am not getting an appointment, i will try an email them and ask them my questions. I have already started talking to various students who are a part of this organization and asking them what they feel about the existence of these associations and what are its strong and week points. |
Project diary
1)field notes-in meetings, events
2)source- members, online (serch engines and websites), library, board
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Readings, Keywords, and Constructs
Discuss what sources, other than your own field notes, that you consult for your project.
Apart from my fieldnotes i am using various other sources for my project. Internet has so far been the most useful one. I have visited various sigths of not only the ISA at our university but others too namely,Indians university,Ohio state university,IIT etc.
This gave me an idea of what the other Indian Students Associatoins do and how it is different or similar from ours.
I am also taking help from various search engines like Google.com to get information. I am also getting a lot of useful matter from the external links in the blackboard website.The online library is also a very good source. Infotrac is also a detailed help option. As far as our university's ISA web site goes,i have visited that but it dosnot have much information in it. I guess i will have to visit the library and also check out more websites online, to get enough information. |
Project diary
The website- www2.uiuc.edu/ro/ISA/
Author- Indian Student Association
Box# 272, 280 Illini Union
1401 West Green St.
Urbana,IL 61801
Purpose and audience- This site was created to inform readers. It helps promote cultural awareness among students at UIUC. It forms as a means for students to communicate among themselves and with those outside the organisation. This website also promotes their organisation. It tells people about itself so that they get
interested and join it.
Currency- This website is current because it has dates of the present events that have occured and the ones that are going to happen. They are also currently updating it even more because it has a few links that dont work and when clicked on, display a message," this page is under construction". |
Field Notes
Use this space to discuss what interesting, significant, revealing, and/or strange information you've recorded in your field notes. What are you learning about your chosen subculture? You might also begin to synthesize the information you are getting from your observations and the other sources you consult.
In an effort to build the bridge with the other campus organizations the Muslim Student Association are having an event co-sponsored by the Indian Student Association. During the Islamic month of Ramadan (which begins october 26th,2003) Muslims fast during dayligHThours as an act of submission, solidarity, and remembrance.
The goal of this event is raise money for the Center of Women in Transition, a local non-profit food shelter. Area businesses have promised to donate one dollar for every non Muslim who fasts during the daylight hours on November 16th. Working with different subcultures can help in facilitating an interphase and intercultural dialogue. I found this event very interesting because unlike others it was not only dealing with its own culture but also widening its horizon to others too. I am really looking forward to this event.
This Tuesday we had a Diwali pooja (prayer) organized by ISA followed by Indian dinner and garba (dance). Diwali is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in India. It is celebrated because there is a belief that on this day god killed all the evils. This festival always starts with the annual Navratri utsav or festival of nine nights. It provokes the city of Gujarat (one of the cities in India) into light, color, music, and dance. Amba Mata, the earth goddess bestowing strength and power against the forces of evil, enjoys special attention during Navratri by Puja and dances of the Ras Garba tradition. These dances normally begin at eleven at night and continue till dawn, at various sites, in different areas in each city. This dance is performed by clapping of hands and moving around in circles.
The event was held in Gregory Hall. Every one was dressed in Indian clothes. We had the prayer session first followed by dinner. The best part of the dinner was that every one sat down on the floor to eat food. Hindus in the ancient times used to eat in this manner. These types of events keep the Indian students connected to their roots and help them celebrate all the rituals with ease and fun. It also gives us an opportunity of meeting people of our own religion and getting to know how they feel about our religion. |
Project diary
Findings
Discuss your findings.
This essay has really helped me to learn a lot. It gave me an immense understanding on my subculture. I realized that we are just like a family who come together to celebrate our rituals and festivals. We are familiar with each other and have some kind of bonding which helps us to be together.
I started my researching through net, field working and library. I also interviewed one of the members of the committee who gave me a lot of valuable information. My first step was making various headings and then I kept adding things in it. I had outlines as
1) Goal of my paper
2) Defining the subculture
3) Gathereing data
- Observations
- Meetings
- Eield notes(meetings, interview, events)
4) Rituals
5) Values
6) Events
7) Repetitions
8) Cultural artifacts (Indian. clothes, food, music, and rituals)
9) Conclusions
I just keep going through these points and adding whatever new material I get. I also found out how this organization functions. It is mainly divided in five categories namely, the President, secretary, treasurer, internal vice president and external vice president.
There are also two cultural cheers who work on all the cultural event organizations under the internal vice president. These three people are responsible for making all the important decisions and organizing all the events. The five different departments work separately within them and don’t interfere with each other. Every Wednesday they all meet up and assess what they have done or achieved that week and then discuss what is to be done next. The board has about 20 members.
ISA has a number of events organized every year. The yearly meetings and other proceedings are mainly funded by the money they raise in the India night that happens every year around April. It is a very big event. People from all over come and watch the show. It comprises of various entertainment items like dances, vocal and instrumental songs, mimicry etc. Apart from this it gets its other funds from SORAF (Student Organization Resource Fee) and APARC (Asian Pacific American Resource collation).
This society presently has about 300 members. There are no set criteria as to who should be its members. Students from all nationalities and religions can become a part of it. Some of the big events that are organized are open for every one. Even the non members can come and become a part of the events and enjoy it. This also gives an opportunity to the people to first observe what happens in this organization and later if they like it they can become a member. The yearly membership costs $10. It has a lot of advantages. Members are kept informed of the activities that are going to take place from time to time. They also have to pay a lot less for tickets intended for various events compared to the non members. They also keep having a lot of special events like Ice-cream social, Gandi week, diwali prayers, and garba raas that are exclusively for its members. They are also given a t-shirt that has the ISA logo printed on it.
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