My group is dedicated to the task at
hand and willing to put in the necessary hours to achieve the ultimate
objective. I come from a discipline, the study of literature, in which work is
performed independently and in isolation, so this set-up poses some unique
challenges. For example, how do you make four distinct voices and writing
styles converge in one document? It’s not the most fluid of processes, but the
members of my writing family are open to a trial-and-error approach and cede to
each other’s suggestions. It’s more of a, “Let’s do this until we get it right”
attitude that’s present in the group and not an “It has to be right the first
time.”
The center of our panel abstract answers
all the journalistic questions, who/where/what/when/why and poses another, “How?”
Who?:
Minority groups and foreigners.
Where?:
In the United States.
What?:
Illustrations in children’s literature for age groups 5-10.
When?:
From the 1960s- 2010.
Why?:
To show how attitudes and depictions (d)evolve.
And…
how have the representations of minority groups changed over the past 50 years?
Carolina
is studying history so her knowledge helped to inform the period we chose; also
she’s curious about how national events may have influenced representation of
said groups in the texts. Maria is studying social work and is interested in
the concept of self-identity, so she wants to know how the images impact the
development of an idea of self. Bijoux also studies social work and has made a
rather intriguing observation: the children’s texts that address ideas of being
“international” often have settings abroad; in other words, based on the books
we’ve seen, it would appear that foreign-born people do not live in the United
States or have a place in our society, which of course is untrue. Me? Well I…
What do I contribute to the group?
Oh,
right. Well, I’m the one who had an interest in children’s books. They are the
culprit for any love of literature that exists in my life. I introduced the
group to the Center for Children’s Books, a non-circulating library/collection
of 16,000 volumes housed in my graduate program’s basement. I pester my group
mates with e-mails and articles that are relevant to our topic; I give homework
assignments to my members and establish deadlines occasionally; and I generally
try to facilitate our discussions with nudging and prodding but not shoving.
Yet.
The
process is challenging at times but not frequently. Sometimes our technology is
not as reliable as we would like it to be and it’s hard for us to all be in the
same space at the same time electronically. The process is rewarding in that I
get to learn about Carolina’s, Maria’s and Bijoux’s lives and families and
perspectives. I learned that Carolina’s family is big on celebrating life
events. Maria went to undergrad at UIUC. Bijoux (Bahati) was named after events
that were occurring around her when she was born.
I’ve
scheduled a dinner so I haven’t got time to say more…
I think your approach to this post with the 5Ws+H was very insightful, and especially applicable given your family members backgrounds (academic and personal). The distribution of "assignments" also seems like a great stabilizing tool which maintains momentum and dialogue. So kudos!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've had the opportunity to watch Monsters University, but if you haven't you might want to give it a try. Children's books are interesting when discussing race,and so are animated films. If I recall correctly, I don't remember seeing one African-American character (or "other"), except for towards the end of film. People laughed, and I did too. I did so because, well, how else do you respond when the image is funny-looking and it's the obvious and only colored monster in the film? Hope this wasn't a spoiler.
ReplyDeleteWho are you, "Planet 8 Mile Wild"? I saw the movie.
Delete