University Networks That Shape Narratives, Specifically Those Relating to Brown vs. The Board of Education
Teresa Ramos
(tramos@uiuc.edu)
(ready to use)
Coauthors
EXPLORE
About the ethnographer
In configuring the EXPLORE section of your IP (Inquiry Page), we want you to do some numerical/statistical surfing. We know that the syllabus URLs gave you too much to chew on. But here are some more specific things that you might do. As you do these you might be thinking about the BIG PICTURE for the "little" research that you want to do. For example, if you know that you are interested in the budget at UIUC then budget information at the state and national level will help you, so to speak, "nest" your project.
1. compare some states on the basis of parameters that interest you.
http://measuringup.highereducation.org/2002/stateprofilenet.cfm
or
http://measuringup.highereducation.org/
I think you will be able to figure it out from here.
2. Go here to compare/contrast UIUC, UIC, and UIS along some parameters that interest you. For example, if you know that you are interested in Latino/as at UIUC, you might want to look at race/ethnicity figures for all 3 campuses.
http://www.uoapa.uillinois.edu/databook/
3. Go here to create several customized reports. For example if you are interested in Engineering vs. the rest of the campus you can ask for very specific info about the engineering vs., let's say, the English department
http://www.dmi.uiuc.edu/cp/
We hope that you will play with these to discover things of interest. When you find them you can both link to the information -- if you can --- or cut and paste it in. But in any case, it is critical that you let everyone know why the information strikes you as relevant/interesting -- both in general and in relation to your burgeoning interests.
OTHER THINGS you might do:
1. Introduce some university narratives (ones we reviewed together -- or better yet find new ones) that intrigue you.
2. Introduce information about higher education generally (e.g., the Boyer report -- http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/ ) that again interests you -- generally, or more specifically with regard to your burgeoning interesrts.
3. Here is the URL for the list of sources for Measuring Up 2000/2002 -- run with it: follow some leads.
Although it is not necessary that your EXPLORE section tell us where you are going(you don't really need to know exactly yet), it should give us and future EOTU users a sense of where you began -- in other words of the kind of questions/ searching/ surfing/ discoveries that set you on your path..
ABOUT THE ETHNOGRAPHER:
I am a senior in Anthropology at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. I have a minor in Political Science. My future goals are to attend both graduate school in anthropology while working towards my Law School Degree. I hope to do research with minorities in urban areas of the United States. The goal of the research will be to advocate for social justice issues in those areas. |
Unit Keywords
|
kw: brown vs. board of education kw: Education
kw: networks kw: e-mail
kw: mailing lists kw: Important
kw: |
Partner Projects
| Ethnography of the University |
INQUIRE
Rationale of the Unit
TBA
October 28, 2003
At present, the focus of this project is going to be on how networks at the University of Illinois shape narratives of the University. I think in the case of Brown vs. Board, I will find that these networks create dichotomies between students and perhaps faculty, as opposed to bringing them together.
(12/17/2003) By networks, I am primarily concentrating my efforts on e-mail networks, however I will also look into any other form of communication that appears to have a significant impact on the study. For the most part I think that this will be limited to e-mail and word-of-mouth communication.
More importantly, this study will focus on how these networks effect and shape the narratives of different factions within the student body. The undergraduate student body will be the primary focus, however this research will also include faculty and miscellanious staff some who regularly interact with students.
|
Project diary
TBA
October 28, 2003
Originally I was doing my project on the way the university shapes student narratives, specifically relating to undergraduate knowledge and involvement at a Research - Extensive University. My project still relates to the larger topic of how the university shapes student narratives, however, now I will focus on how university networks shape student and faculty narratives about the Brown vs. Board of Education Commemoration. I will specifically focus on e-mail lists and word-of-mouth networks, as well as the general publicity of the Brown events. |
Research Plan
TBA
October 28, 2003 (revised 12/16/03)
First, I should start by stating what I know about the Brown versus Board of Education decision. I know that this decision took place in 1954, and allowed for the desegregation of public schools throughout the nation. This decision was not at all widely accepted, especially in the southern states. I remember seeing documentaries of the initial integrations of some of the southern schools where the National Guard had to be called in for the African American students' safety. I know that this decision was just the beginning of a long battle. I feel that all Americans today were impacted by this decision, whether they realize it or not. For example, I attended a public school in Chicago for most of my elementary and all of my high school education. I met the majority of my best friends through the Chicago Public School system. If the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was not decided in favor of Brown, the school that I attended as a child, may not have been integrated. There is a strong probability that I would not have attended a school with any of my childhood friends, thus they probably would not have been my friends. My best friends today are people from all backgrounds,I might not have known these people if it was not for school and I would not be the person I am today if it was not for those friends and the integrated magnet schools of Chicago.
The Supreme Court decision that took place on May 17th 1954 shaped my life in many ways. This decision allowed me to have Crystal Star as a best friend in a Denver preschool. Tara Barbara as a best friend in fourth grade. This allowed me to play the game "seven up" with Damien Clark in the second grade, and it allowed my second grade teacher Mrs. Gordon, to teach us that game. In this sense, the Brown decision is responsible for many of my childhood experiences for which I cannot be more grateful. Other than this, I know that there is a whole plethora of information regarding this decision that I do not know. I also know that there are many more people like me who only know what they have experienced or read in textbooks. I know that I read about it in school, but what does that really say?
October 28, 2003
This is part of my outline, the larger part will appear as an attachment. The majority of it will be for the EOTU official work, however I would like to use this as a starting point for deciding which networks I would like to focus. As of right now I think I would like to work specifically with the e-mail networks generated by the cultural houses.
(Revised 12/15/03) This outline is a list of networks of sorts. These places all have e-mail lists that networks party of the student community. Some of the people on the
e-mail lists are self-selective, others are Brown vs. Board of Education Jubilee Celebration.
Brown vs. Board of Education Jubilee Celebration
There are five main areas in which to focus, 1) Residential Life, 2)The Cultural Programs/Houses, 3)Academic Units, 4) The Libraries, 5) The Community
II. The Cultural Programs
A. African American Cultural Program
http://www.omsa.uiuc.edu/aacp/
B. Office of Minority Student Affairs (OMSA)
http://www.omsa.uiuc.edu
C. La Casa Cultural Latina
http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/lacasa/
D. Black Greek Counsel
http://www2.uiuc.edu/ro/bgc/frameset.html
E. Team: Together Encouraging the Appreciation of Multiculturalism
http://www2.uiuc.edu/ro/team/mission.htm
November 4, 2003
Some new questions and thoughts that have come to my attention from discussing my project with the class.
1) What does it mean to be networked?
2) Housing relates strongly to people's networks since everyone is on a Resident Advisors e-mail list, at least during their freshman year. Then after people leave the residence halls the are no longer networked in that sense.
3)Might want to talk to Paula Hoffman, the director of the library.
4)Use Nicoles Narrative about 1954, and perhaps incorporate some information about Brown vs. Board into this page to nest the project for future readers.
5)Narrative and Networks have a dynamic relationship. The story can bring people into a network and a network can bring people to events that tell them a story.
6) Set up a meeting with Kendy
November 5, 2003
I have decided to narrow and shift my focus just a bit again. I am no longer going to be studying the networks of the cultural houses directly. I would like to study the members of the EBC (Ethnography of the Brown Commemoration) working group, as well as members of the EOTU Anth 199 class. Depending on how the members of these two groups find out about Brown vs. Board of Education Events will determine which other campus groups I will study.
November 10, 2003
E-mail, it is the way to communicate on a college campus. E-mail might be the most popular form of communication besides word of mouth. Initially this study was going to be on the vast networks at UIUC that transferred information regarding the Brown vs. Board of Education Commemoration. However, getting past first time ethnographers naivety, the focus is now on to two groups, 1) The Ethnography of the University Working Group on the Ethnography of the Brown Commemoration, and 2) the Anthropology 199AK class, Ethnography of the University. |
Project diary
TBA
December 17, 2003
Since there was so much information floating around campus this semester regarding Brown, I felt it necessary to write down what I knew about Brown before I became completely "networked" by the university. |
Readings, Keywords, and Constructs
TBA
November 10, 2003
Light, Richard J. "Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds." Havard University Press, 2001.
Anderson, Best, Black, Hurst, Miller and Miller. "Cross-Curricular Underlife: A Collaborative Report on Ways with Academic Words." College Composition and Communication, Vol. 41, 1990.
Literacy in American Lives. Chapter Six "The Means of Production: Literacy and Stratification at the Twenty-First Century."
I believe the "big picture problem" is that "good" education is a limited resource. The Light book gives examples of inequality in higher education and how resources can help "make" a students college experiance (this is not true for everyone). Whether schools are public or private there should be a relative equivalence to the access of information and materials for all students. This creates inequalities in the types of education However, this problem is very complex, and deeply rooted in the value system of our nation. It would be nearly impossible to tackle in the time allotted for this class. Yet, I do feel that their is a solution, although only temporary, that will keep us on track for creating equal access to information and education. This solution is based on opening the closed networks of information that many universities have and prepetuate.
November 16, 2003
For the past 3 weeks there has been a small icon of a black shadow of a girl on a white background, which turns orange when a mouse goes over it. It is not a link to the Brown vs. Board of Education Jubilee Celebration, on the UIUC webpage (http://www.uiuc.edu/index.html ) but to another page explaining the UIUC Brown Celebration (http://www.uiuc.edu/overview/explore/brown.html ), as represented by Nancy Cantor. For the past 3 weeks it has been on the far right side of the this page. Just recently it was placed closer to the middle of the page. Why did it change? When did it appear? Where will the information go after this celebration year ends?
December 01, 2003
Herzberg, Bruce. Community Service and Critical Teaching. CC45.3 October 1994
This assigned class reading may not be pertinent to this specific research project but it is part of the overriding them of educational assessment.
"Schools can't be held responsible for prior economic discrimination ... but they must be held accountable for reinforcing it."
"students...need to see that there is a social basis for most of the conditions they take to be matters of individual choice or individual ability."
(12/17/03)
These two quotes are relevant, not only to my specific project, but also to the prupose of much of the research done in Anthropology 199AK. The first quote from Herzbergs book, expresses the feelings of a student regarding the policies of a university. This quote does capture my feelings regarding the universities networking procedures. The university is not responsible for economic discrimination, as I have learned from Joy Williamson's book "Black Power On Campus", the University of Illinois was at the forefront of racial or socio-economic, integration. However, some of the policies that remain are old, outdated, and need to be brought to the attention of the administration. |
Project diary
TBA
November 10, 2003
I am still not sure where to put things on this Inquiry Page. So some things may appear more than once in different places. Also, the attachments are just longer versions of some of the things I ahve summed up thus far.
November 15, 2003
Possible network areas to look into:
1) The Daily Illini
2) Do people pick and choose who to send e-mails to, as opposed to sending it to everyone on their e-mail list and letting them choose themselves?
December 17, 2003
Although I love working on this research enviornment, I feel that the inquiry page is somewhat restrictive and at the same time allows for too much change. If the purpose is to capture students original thoughts as they write them day by day, then once a person submits there notes, perhaps they should not be allowed to go back and change them (only if the goal of the unit is to capture every aspect of student research.) At the same time, I feel that it may be beneficial for Inquiry Page users to be able to create there own headings i.e. "create", "inquire", etc. I think that these titles should still appear, but they sohuld be able to be changed by the students. I think the students can than be more creative and maybe more orgranized, with their research. |
Field Notes
TBA
November 10, 2003
The study focuses on how these people come into and out of contact with Brown vs. Board events. While doing this the hope is to nest their network systems by learning their narratives of the University of Illinois, (where they lived, what clubs they joined, anything that would explain them being on a specific e-mail list). Then finding out their Brown vs. Board narratives as well as what they think about the commemoration, what they think that the commemoration should, and will accomplish, and what specific events they think would be most important.
This topic of Brown vs. Board narratives is really a window into the University of Illinois as well as insight into how university creates student narratives and systems of knowledge. One of the many things reiterated at the Brown events across campus is that there is still more to be done. There are still many people on this campus who have a narrow system of knowledge. I believe this is due to the lack of access of diverse information.
November 30, 2003
As the networks are will be traced back through different channels, the narratives as to why these specific people are on these lists and have remained on these lists will be important. It will be interesting to talk to the people who send out the e-mails. What do their narratives have to say about the information they are passing on? What does this say about the people receiving the information? Given that this specific project of networks, even though narrowed, will potentially produce many more narratives, the focus could be shift again.
December 17, 2003
A large portion of the field notes are in the next section as well as in attached as Word documents near the end of this page. |
Project diary
TBA
December 18, 2003
Im not sure how reasearch can ever be written into a book or report. Although the beginning of this section seems to be like a "paper" there are still more questions near the end. It seems as if there are always more questions to ask and avenues to explore. This is somewhat frightening idea. How do professors ever research more than one topic, or culture if their studying anthropology? |
Findings
TBA
November 10, 2003(revised 12/10)
The Brown Commemoration is connecting the everyday societal concerns of African-Americans and people of color, to the people attending the Brown vs. Board of Education events. In the past, and going into this experience, I thought that getting the Brown message out there was about getting it out to non-minorities. The goal of the Brown commemoration, for some, is not to network people who cannot relate, in order to enlighten them. Most of the organizations are focusing on making sure the people who do feel some connection to the Brown decision, understand those connections. As I have learned from many conversations with student leaders and coordinators of Brown events, it is also the students of color are not making the connection between official and unofficial events and the Brown decision of 1954.
This is important to the study on networks because it presents a reason, gievn by specific campus organizations, for only targeting or “networking?specific people.
(12/18/03)Some of the sentiments that have been expressed by people related to these organizations, are those of "tiredness", in that they feel that they can only do so much. Students are busy. Many have responsibilities such as work, family, and extra curricular activities that go beyond their school work. By extra curricular activities, I am in general, refereing to Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). Programmers and event coordinators of the larger events on campus, have to compete with all of these other aspects of student life, in order to get a student audience at these events.
November 16, 2003
Even though people are placed into networks at the university and those networks can shape the narratives students have of the university it is important to note that no two narratives are the same. The university does play a large part in creating or denying access to networks, but it is the person, the student who ultimatly chooses how they are networked. What I have learned from ethnography and studying student narratives is that people can hear the same stories but that does not necessitate the same internalization of them. This difference is not simply the way an African-American student internalizes the narrative compared to how a European student internalizes the same narrative, this difference defies lines of color and ethnicity.
November 30, 2003
The reasoning behind the deduction, that interpretations of networks defy lines of color and ethnicity, comes from conversations in class and outside of class, with friends and among people who have very similar networks, but have very different views on what those networks mean. Eric, for example, has a very different idea about what it means to be networked on campus, and who is responsible for "networking" students, than some of the other students with whom I have conversed.
The interpretations as well as the knowledge of these networks ties into the notions of "blackness" or "latinness". These are the shades or degrees of cultural identity that people wear or are classified as, most often times by their peers. These classifications also defy color lines and dive into socio-economic stratifications as well.
(12/10/03)
At this point, it may be important to explain the relationship I have with Eric, a person that I have interviewed for this project, and will refer to throughout this page.
I have known Eric since the fall of 2000, my first semester of college. He lived next door to my two best friends from High School. Eric also knew my roommate freshman year, through precisely the networks I am focusing on personally, in the Ethnography of the Brown Commemoration. Both Eric and my roommate were on La Casa’s (The Latin American Cultural Center’s) e-mail list. Thus these two were privy to many of the events being thrown freshman year at La Casa, that were particularly geared toward Latina /Latino students. I was thus networked by Eric and my roommate to the Latina /Latino community, while at the same time I was networked to the African American Community by Eric neighbors, my best friends. These were the networks of my freshman year in college. The event e-mails that I received were from my Resident Advisor and from the clubs 10 plus or so clubs I joined on Quad Day were nothing compared to these.
Eric’s neighbors, my two best friends, were both classified as African American’s by the University, probably for their entire life for that matter. One was only half African-American and did not look “black? Another friends, Eric’s roommate also became a great member our little group of friends. He was a “white boy?from Missouri. He had very little exposure to any people of color and was pledging a fraternity that semester. One more person, a best friend from high school as well, was a prominent figure in my network of people freshman year. Together we formed an amazing group full of diverse life experiences, which had lead us all to the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.
The narratives and networks of these people have shaped my college experience. Thus, it is only fitting that I turn to them again now as I analyze these networks in a Brown vs. Board of Education context. Eric just happened to be the first person I saw from this group at a Brown event.
December 17, 2003
After I left that event Eric and I had a chat on AIM (America Online Instant Messaging)regarding the event. I cannot remember most of the conversation now, however, we talked aobut the "Project 500" event and the publicity of it. I asked him how he found out aobut the event, and what he thought of it. It was very informal, but the resulting conversation lead me to ask Eric for an interview. In that interview I asked Eric many of the same questions that I had asked him in our AIM conversation. Eric is one of those students who is full of information on the university.
November 30, 2003 continued...
Although there are other forms of communication and publicity, e-mail is fundamental to being "networked" at this university. Students are not the only members of the university who are distinctly "networked". (12/18/03) Faculty and staff are also segregated in this sense as well. This is something that can be seen inside and out of the Brown Commemoration context. There are many types of segregation. With the students, my main concern is segregation between students of differing cultures and/or socio-economic class. With the faculty, this is not the case, in the extent that it is with the students.
Faculty of the same department or school, are often networked together, and those networks are not ethnically distinguished. However, many of the Chemistry faculty in Noyes Lab, know nothing of the research going on across the street in Davenport Hall. The information is not shared, whether that be specific research, or their concerns regarding undergradute students, or graduate research assistants. (This is one of the reasons this inquiry page and student research on the university is so important. Students are more apt to cross these department lines, than faculty.)
The following example of faculty / staff networks is taken from my fieldnotes of Professor Josey's visit and lecture regarding Brown vs. Board and the libraries:
As I was waiting outside the room, some older women were talking about this event being advertised in the Champaign News Gazette. They were amazed that it had gotten such publicity and that was one of the reasons they made sure to come today. I asked one woman, who was standing next to me, (older, gray hair,) how she found out about the event. She said she was on a list serve, received an e-mail of some sort.
...I asked her who was invited to the event, how it was advertised and how information was being circulated.
Mostly librarians were present were on a list serve or they found out through word of mouth. Some have come from Chicago, UIC, and others were from Springfield Libraries, in groups. She said most all found out through e-mail. She went to the News Gazette website informed them (via an e-mail alert) of the event; they contacted her back and ran news of the event in yesterdays 10/23 paper. It also was run in the DI (daily illini)...
The rest of my fieldnotes only reiterate this point; most of the audience found out about the event via an e-mail from a colleague or friend. This was an interesting twist that I had not expected, but for which I should have been prepared. (I say that I should have been prepared for this because I myself am networked, via e-mail, through my family, especially my mother. Most people these days use e-mail at work, so that the connection between "work knowledge" and family is closer than ever.) Originally I thought that faculty would be informing other faculty as almost a mandatory, informative e-mail, (much like a monthly newsletter that goes out to all employees), However, I had not expected faculty and coordinators to also include friends and family on their e-mail lists. This implies a much more personal connection between the people and the events.
Many of the family members and friends attend these events as well; this is especially true when it comes to friends or family of the coordinators of the events. Laura Haber, the program coordinator at Allen Hall/ Unit One, has her own constituency of people who are "networked" by her and some of the people on her network are present at every Guest-In-Residence event. Some of Laura's friends are members, as is Laura, of organizations that have direct interests in some of the speakers. Ben Cox, for example, was a Guest-In-Residence who was a Freedom Fighter and is still an advocate of the use of non-violence to protest social injustices. Some of the members of the audience, who knew Laura, were members of peace organizations who use and promote 1950's and 1960's non-violence techniques.
December 03, 2003
Another example of how networks affect faculty is also related to the Brown Commemoration. The meeting I had with Cynthia, a professor at this university, touched on some of the issues about access to education that were brought up in class readings.
She says:
“It is limited, how information gets past out, because so many of us depend on e-mail and how many people have computers, you know. I mean that there is an assumption there that there is a community of people that have computers and there is a whole segment of the community that doesn’t, that we wont reach in that way. And that’s why it was important for me to make sure that I had connections in the community of people who would put flyers around, who would send a PSA to the local radio station that they listen to, not necessarily what I listen to but what they listen to. Radio stations that I had never heard of, so that hopefully the word could get out.?
Cynthia brings up another crucial point that the Anthropology 199AK class briefly touched on through readings. The main point being that when e-mail is the most commmon way to be networked, it is easy to forget that the greater community is not necessarily connected to the world-wide-web. Many of the people in the Champaign Urbana community may not even have computers. Faculty, students and staff have to go beyond their computers and offices in order to establish a connection. The university must not see this limitation in communication. If it does, then it is doing a poor job at address this issue.
All I can conclude is that the university seems to be lack the programs needed to allow people on this campus to connect with each other, and with the community, and when the university succeeds in establishing a connection, it usually negatively affects that non-university affiliate.
December 10, 2003
Talking with a few sources had confirmed my original suspicion on how minority students become networked on campus was correct. Students that are on La Casa’s or the African-American Cultural Programs e-mail are either 1) self selected as in they walk into these offices and sign up to be on the e-mail list or 2) they were part of a partial e-mail list given to the cultural programs at the onset of every freshman year. Not every Latina/Latino students?e-mail is on the list given to La Casa. Thus, were as it is the students who ultimately decide whether to attend these events, and it is the students who may or may not internalize these events, it is the university that gives them access to the knowledge of La Casa, for example, and the programs they provide.
|
Project diary
TBA
December 17, 2003
Although the Create section is primarily supposed to be for field notes, I have incorporated them into my discuss section so that I can "discuss" them with my results as I go. Most of the interviews that I have done are attached as Word documents under the "Upload Files" section of this page.
|
Refer to other EOTU work
TBA
December 10, 2003
This work connects to many of the other students in Anth 199AK in many ways. Ann's page, for example, is, in a way, about how transfer students get networked at this university. It is about how students meet people and interact with one another. Transfer students not only have networks to other transfer students,
December 18, 2003
Parts of this project also connect to a part of Nicole's work (http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/bin/unit_update.cgi?command=select&xmlfile=u12836.xml ), in that the internalization of the information that is presented is part of the networking process. The places in which the information is given, and how it is given correlate with the retention of that information, and thus shape the narratives. The Brown event, or events similar to this in the future, would be great to research in light of the enviornment of the events. |
Project diary
Project diary
TBA
December 10, 2003
My future plans for this reasearch include using this research, as well as the research started earlier in the semester, for my Senior Thesis Project. For my thesis project, I plan on incorporating more of my own narratives of being a student at UIUC, more field notes, and more related readings.
One of the avenues that I would like to explore is the idea of "mythical narratives" of the university of Illinois, particularly those of the undergraduate students. I think that this is a common theme regarding networks at the university. Students come up with ideas as to why policies are the way they are, true or not, and they are told to other students, and soon enough those hypothesis are common narratives among students.
December 18, 2003
I would also like to speak to more administrators, in order to assess their knowledge of some of the student related policies, and to get their feelings on the subject in general. I imagine I will get a lot of techinical responses from them, in that technically they cannot "network" every student or faculty member. Hopefully, I will be able to use some of the same techniques as Pierre Bourdieu, in order to get a real response, as opposed to administrative nonsense.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS:
These recommendations are for the University of Illinois in general, however many of them can be applied to individual sectors of administration. Many of these recommendations are specifically geared toward the Student Affairs administrators.
1) Rid the minority student body of making the decision to attend 2 day or 3 day orientation, and thus liberating them from the decision to segregate from a part of the student body before they even step foot on campus.
2) Have all freshman students go on a tour of the cultural houses.
3) Place all minority students on the cultural houses' list serve. (If this is impossible due to technical reasons, at least rotate the list randomly throughout the year in order to expose as many people to the information as possible.)
4) Create an all campus event calendar (available on the internet), and actively publicize the benefits of it's use. All student groups and campus organizations should be able to post events. There should be no limit to the number of events that can be posted, in order to give equal access to all the available information.
5) Actively study current university policy to see if any of it is outdated and needs to be redone.
6) The university sohuld study the networks of it's institution in order to better understand how communication functions, on all levels of the campus.
7) The university should create better outlets for communication with the community, so that students and faculty can more readily bridge the gaps that seperate the campus community from the Champaign-Urbana community. |
Project diary
TBA
December 17, 2003
As a final note, I have done something a bit different than most of the other users of the Inquiry Page. I have done my revision alongside the passages I am revising and I have also placed a date there so that viewers can see my original thoughts, and then how they have changed. The goal with this is just to make revisions and clear up some things that may not have been as clear earlier. It is not to put conclusions alongside the questions. The conclusions will appear in the discussion section.
Sept 10, 2004
Looking back on what I wrote last year I understand a bit more about myself. I strongly claim my
Mexican and Polish identity but when I wrote about my previous knowledge of Brown v Board I wrote as a white person who would have been placed in a school away from African-Americans. I wrote as a phenotype, as the way others would see me and thus a way in which I identify myself. More interesting was that my description was very black-white. Even though I consider myself a shade in between it was interesting to me to look at this writing and my thought process at the time. As an EBC (Ethnography of the Brown Commemoration) ethnographer not only were my interests in anthropology spurred but the way that I view the world (and UIUC) changed. Initially, at some level, I saw Brown as a very black-white thing. I'm not sure that I would write the same way now about Brown, but it is something interesting for me to think about. |
Credits and Acknolwedgement
This has been a great semester. All of the students in the Anth 199AK class have shared so much information, so freely, I wish all courses were as open to students sharing their opinions. Nancy and Bill did a great job of creating a learning enviornment that not only allowed undergraduate students do research, but the all created a secure atmosphere for sharing, sometimes sensitive information, with one another. I hope EOTU and the Inquiry Page are great success, that it will become instumental to learning in higher education.
Once again, thank-you Nancy and Bill, for this experiance! |
Uploaded Files:
BVBOutline.doc
TheNetworkingofBrownvs.doc
FirstwhatIknow.doc
LibEventTeresa.doc
MeetingWithCynthiaOliver.doc
Users' Comments on this Unit
- Teresa - OK, I'm glad to see the new page - It looks like you have a good start, and here are some initial questions that I have about where you're headed: What exactly are you looking for in the email and word of mouth networks? Maybe you could start with how these networks function normally, and how they are working in this particular situation. Are you going to talk at all about what the situation was like at U of I in 1954? I know you are still in very formative stages, and I will continue to comment as you move along - I am very excited about your research! - by amaloney@uiuc.edu
- Hi Teresa, This is a really fascinating subject and I think you're asking great questions. I think it might be good to see if there is any literature out there on email and cyber networks and how they might function. Some of these findings might be applicable to this more local situation and might give you ideas for how to frame your discussion and findings here at UIUC. I have emailed you one article reference on international women's networks (via the Internet/email) that may be helpful. The library does own the issue it appears in. I will give this some more thought and get back to you. Please feel free to get in touch with me any time with questions. Jeanne - by higgs@uiuc.edu
- Hi Teresa,
This looks good. One thing to remember, however, is that people who share the same narratives are likely to build networks around them. In other words, networks mobilize narratives, put them into circulation so they can be shared etc., and narratives mobilize networks, people who share and value narratives about equality of educational opportunity and the importance of organizing instituions to insure it, end up networking with each other. The EBC group may have formed more from the fact people shared a narrative more than a network per se. For example, I contancted Paul and Rene because I knew from their writing that they valued the narrative of Brown Vs. Board of Education as a constructive social project. You might want to interview some of the students, staff, faculty etc. who go to these events and talk to them about networks and the narratives they value on this issue. Also, see if their activities have opened new networks (virtual, new e-mail listserves etc.).
Also, your field notes on the Brown events are wonderful and you should put excerpts of them or download them to this site. I think some of your detailed excerpts that demonstrate some of the narratives of the Brown activities would be very helpful to anyone reading your site. I suggest entering excerpts from your field notes and bits of interviews as soon as possible. You also should start discussing these in relation to your questions this week as well. Keep up the good work, but start thinking in the discuss section sooner rather than later. I will help you hone in on the salient episodes in your last week of fieldwork for this semester project. Good luck! Bill - by wkellehe@uiuc.edu
- So excited Teresa that this is a project that you will be keeping alive next semester -- and more personally that I will be able to continue to observe its ongoing development and your ongoing conclusions/recommendations. Thanks for all your hard work, Nancy - by nabelman@uiuc.edu
|
If you want to add your comments on this Unit, please login first.
|
