Reframing Thesis Paper, Deaf Collection and American School for the Deaf

Past few weeks flew by and my thesis paper constantly shifting its focus. I cannot believe the frustration I have with this paper. My goal is to organize a timeline to help me focus more on the thesis and invest more time in researching, organizing and re-formatting the topic.

Since the intercession, the topic paper went from Digital Archive and Curriculum Developing to  Deaf Collections’ Digital Archive and American School for the Deaf (ASD). ASD will be having their bicentennial (200th) celebration in the upcoming April 2017 and their goal is to establish a collaborated digital archive project. My goal with this project is to become involved with the project and do some digitizing, cataloging and to work remotely.

My thesis paper often went out of focus and that encouraged me to visit my advisors and asked for their feedbacks. After few days, with advisors feedbacks and several edits, i still couldn’t change the formats. I revisited and emailed them my several copies of  the first draft paper. Their feedbacks came out and it was still more than i assumed. Hopefully with 2nd paper, the vision might clear up better with developing details, restructuring clearer objectives.

Secondly, the research on the topic, Deaf Collections’ Digital Archive and American School for the Deaf, seem to be more clear point to start but elaborating more on the historical aspects, metadata, reading / research sources will be challenging for me to work with. Other than researching and reading, I'm maintaining contact with my connections, some of the coordinators at ASD, to plan my trip for a upcoming workshop related to ASD's collaborated project.

Meeting with My Advisers - Reorienting Myself and My Project

As of late I've been working on my thesis paper and over the past week I've finished up working on the first 10 pages of my paper. As far as Tina and Becky have told me, when I met with them earlier,  I seem to be moving in the right direction in terms of the paper itself. The biggest change that I was told to make was to more directly speak about how the various writers' and academics' work are going to inform my project within the literature review section.

Also, as I said earlier, today I met with both my primary and secondary advisers and all three of us sat down to discuss my project and paper. As well as talking about the actual thesis paper Tina, Becky, and I discussed the expectations and parameters of my project. We came to the conclusion that, considering the huge scope of the collection, there just isn't enough time for me to look through and appraise the whole 32 boxes of the collection let alone get to rehousing the 32 scrapbooks. Instead we agreed that it would be best for me to set up parameters for appraisal and appraise a number of the boxes, but not all of them. That way I could set up the parameters and a tool for appraisal and get the project started, but someone else could finish appraising the rest of the material after my project is over using the same tools and parameters, as I just don't have enough time to get to all of the items in the collection at this point.

Another big change to my project that we all agreed on is to drop the idea of working with the scrapbooks and not taking a closer look at preservation. We decided that, since Becky knows that she wants to keep and just rehouse the scrapbooks, that those didn't need to be included in the project and that work can easily be done by another person. Therefore without this focus my paper is going to focus completely on appraisal and deaccession, and it'll only look at preservation as it associated with appraisal/deaccession, such as decisions to copy items that are in very bad condition or copy and remove items that are too deteriorated or may cause damage to the objects/documents around them.

Colorama Revisited

During the last part of the previous semester and over intersession, I have taken my thesis and project in a different direction. Previously, my thesis question was centered around the amount of research that was required to create a finding aid. One of the major obstacles with this thesis question, was finding a way to include the work that I have been doing at GEM, including rehousing and cataloging. My new thesis question is more central to the processes required to make a collection accessible, the byproduct being the creation of a thesis.

The transition the first week of the semester was scary, to say the least. I threw out 90% of my sources from my bibliography and almost my entire outline. Fortunately, I feel much more comfortable with where my thesis is headed now, and I was able to quickly makeup for lost time, and then some. Im excited to see where this goes and what the finished product will bring.

Pinball Prologue

Over the intercession I read the rest of the sources on my "to-read" list, tagging pages and taking notes. Between intercession and week 3, I had discussions with my primary and secondary advisors before submitting the first pages of my rough draft. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the meeting I scheduled with my primary advisor turned into a phone conversation instead, but it was very productive in organizing the outline and eliminating unnecessary content. Since submitting my rough draft I have received feedback from two of my peers that highlighted some of the weak points in my introductory paragraphs and literature review. Their suggestions helped provide direction on where to go next and what to elaborate on. I have also received feedback from my primary advisor to refine the outline even further. The more progress I make, the more manageable the thesis becomes.

This week I had another meeting with my primary advisor to discuss the rough draft, but it had to be rescheduled due to a rare snow day that cancelled on-campus activities. So I will be meeting her at noon tomorrow instead to discuss the changes I have made to the draft (since incorporating the comments and suggestions from her and my student peers, Samuel Pike and Jenna Bossert.)

Next, I will be contacting my secondary advisor to refine the parameters of my scope. The initial proposal's scope was originally 1930 to present day. The revised proposal was reduced to 1970-1989, but this is still rather arbitrary. I would like to focus on more modern machines, where many other historians have left off. I will examine the social landscape of America and important moments in pinball to better define start and end points.

Questionnaires and Phone Calls

I'm getting closer and closer to contacting the interviewees for my thesis and it is rather exciting. I've been writing down every question I could think of in preparation for the actual interviews. My game plan as of right now is to call each place first. I want to introduce myself professionally, explain who I am, what I am interviewing them for, and ask them who I should contact, and in what way.

I want them to feel as though I'm really looking out for them--which I am. As a future public historian it is important to make it known that I am not against the practices that some of these institutions use. While I may not always agree with them, I am not in a position to tell them how to run what many of them may see as their own business. If they agree to interview with me, I will give them three choices: A phone interview, a google survey, or a written/e-mail interview. Each one will ask the same questions, and all of them will be recorded.

I have been asked however, what will I do if my interview is turned down? From here I will only evaluate their websites, and informational brochures if I can get my hands on them. I will still do it respectfully, as I do not intend this Thesis to be a bashing of methods, but simply a look at them and an ethical study of them. Questions I want to ask are the why, who, and what went into doing things a certain way. Why market the death and violence in your history this way, why leave that out, how do you justify this decision? How long has it been put in place and was it even your decision to begin with?

By the end I should know the ins and outs of every place and methodology on my list. If they do my interview, at least.

A short story about the Kondoff family

Since I've gotten back to Rochester I've not only done some really interesting research with some local collections, but I've also had a lot of progress on my project with Swiftwater Brewing.  But the most interesting thing I've uncovered, and am still trying to piece together is the story of a Germany family in early Rochester.

One of the very first breweries in Rochester was opened by Henry Kondoff, but it was also one of the shortest-lived breweries. Just 5 years after opening he was convinced by his son to become a carpenter instead. At that time children would often take over the family business and his son, Mathias Kondoff did not want to become a brewer, but a carpenter instead, so his father relented. After a 30 year gap of time, years of Rochester that I'm told are the least documented, Mathias became the president of Genesee Brewing, one of the biggest breweries at the time. How he got there? Who knows, well, hopefully me by the end of my research. Although currently unknown by me how he got there, his return to brewing would bring a lot of change to the brewing world of Rochester/

Thesis Progress: Weeks 1-3

It's amazing how much progress can happen in just two weeks. Over intersessions and Week 1 I was questioning my topic and was unsure what to do. After getting back into the swing of things my passion and excitement for my topic has been restored.

Writing the first 10 pages in the beginning was extremely difficult. It took me two hours just to write two paragraphs. I was left feeling extremely frustrated. Thankfully I found my voice, got a good pace, and thankfully had friends and family cheering me on. As I got closer to 10 pages it became difficult to write again.

The peer review wasn't as helpful as I had originally hoped however I am looking forward for edits from my readers. I want to know their opinions and places were I can improve. After writing and doing some editing, I'm excited to be in this process and looking forward to the next coming weeks.

Amanda

The Progress of my Thesis

             During the intersession, I received the feedbacks from the RIT faculty Committee and reviewed those in order to understand where I was going to revise the changes in the additions to my thesis. They gave me a focus on a digital exhibit, which I did not think of before. Why didn’t I think of it before, I do not have a clue. My advisor, Professor Tamar Carroll, recommended the WordPress to begin. I yet have to create it, but I will do it this later within week 5 or 6.

Since I did not have the chosen books at home, I read the online sources and annotated those into a Word document that I would look up again. To my disappointment, I had a problem finding the sources of Prospects of Mankind, but I managed to find one or two of its film series. I had expected to find at least three than one film; nevertheless, I was very thrilled to watch those that I had found many interesting things about Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the discussions on issues that reflect on women’s rights, social justice, and others.

Now it is in week 5, I am extremely busy, but I have been trying to make several times to work on my thesis, to meet with my advisors to discuss, to skim the sources and to continue undergoing the changes.

I also have been writing the roughly 10 pages of my thesis in the beginning, but as I wrote into 8 pages of my first draft, I found that it did not progress what I wanted it to in a way. Professor Decker suggested me to skip some of the sections that I may struggle with for now. That helps me to further my writing, although I feel very awkward to leave some of the sections blank for a while.

Progression of Thesis

        Over intersession I was able to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and make my observations. I went on a Sunday, and arrived a little after 9 a.m. I was the first visitor there so I had the museum to myself for about an hour before other people started trickling in, which was nice, but different because I had never been in the Baseball Hall of Fame when it was so empty!    
        My thesis is progressing the way I want it to. I haven't had to make any significant changes, and I don't think I will need to.  I have begun writing the paper, and recently finished ten pages for my first draft. The writing process is going well, however I am still playing around with the order of section two of my paper, in which I will discuss the study of sports, sports museums, the study of baseball, the history of baseball, African Americans in baseball, the Negro Leagues, and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (not necessarily in that order). As I add more content, and fill out the sections in more detail, I will be able to see more clearly how I want that section of my paper to flow. 

Below is a picture I took at the Museum. This quote caught my eye given the nature of my thesis, in which I have been conducting research on the history of baseball and how African Americans were marginalized within the sport, in order to answer my question of whether the Baseball Hall of Fame's museum challenges the traditional marginalization of African Americans in baseball.

"Major League Baseball has an enormous social responsibility to provide equal opportunities for all people, both on and off the field."  -- Commissioner Bud Selig, 2013

Thesis Evolution, Starr

In the past several weeks, my thesis has undergone significant changes. Continuing to delve further down the rabbit hole of research, I started to better understand all of the facets I will need to explain further. Throughout this process, I have received the feedback of needing to narrow the scope of the project, and it seems like the changes I've made will create a more effective end result. 

The framing of the initial research was looking from a psychological perspective at how accessibility efforts are implemented in museums. This study was primarily targeted toward museum personnel and looked at issues of implicit bias, discrimination, and cultural awareness. Through conducting research in the realms of museum accessibility, museum studies broadly, disability studies, and civil rights law, I unearthed a more fundamental dichotomy which the thesis is now exploring. 

 Now, the project has evolved to look at the difference between perceiving museum accessibility as a legal obligation or an ethical opportunity. The necessity of cultural institutions to engage diverse communities is often discussed in the "identity crisis" of many museums. 

Carmen Papalia, Blind Field Shuttle, 2012.

The project will include a synthesis of museum studies theoretical frameworks, and inclusionary laws. Additionally, the thesis will utilize case study examples to illustrate diverse accessibility practices. One of the case studies, and theoretical frameworks discussed will be the work of Carmen Papalia, a blind artist who argues for experience-based learning and accessibility efforts in cultural institutions.[1]



[1] Carmen Papalia, “A New Model for Access in the Museum,” Disability Studies Quarterly 33, no. 3 (May 12, 2013).

Process and Progress

With the semester starting up, I wanted to give you all an update on how my intersession research progressed, where I am going with my topic, and what my goals are for senior thesis. Over intersession, I read many books and journals related to my topic; I annotated all pertinent findings and quotes that resonate with my paper. I have narrowed my focus to looking at 1 issue per year of American Vogue from 1965-1974. This timeline is more manageable and will allow me to delve into my textual and photographic analysis better. I am looking at how women’s roles are represented and constructed through the magazine by assessing how they are portrayed in editorial photographs, lifestyle articles, and advertisements. I am analyzing how these depictions relate to and portray aspects of the second wave feminist movement, as well as the social, cultural, and political happenings of the time

            I created the idea for my methodological analysis tool after reviewing 3 magazines online through The Vogue Archive and will be including the following classifications in my analysis: female form and silhouette, environment, interactions with other figures, signifiers of counterculture, and feminist focus. Each categorical term serves to be representative of larger concepts. The category female form and silhouette alludes to a woman’s pose in photographic content, the shape of her body, the shape created by what she is wearing, how her body is discussed or featured. The category environment refers to the surroundings and conditions a woman is shown in through text or the background of photographs or advertisements. The category interactions with other figures allude to who else is shown in the photograph and how a woman is shown interacting with them. The category signifiers of counterculture refer to noteworthy changes in ideology of the definition of womanhood, the social roles appropriate to this definition, shifts in clothing styles, and the cultural, social, and political events of the time. Signifiers include mentions or inferences of youth, innocence, and sexual appeal in textual and photographic content. The category of feminist focus alludes to equal rights, women’s liberation, empowerment, and individualism.

My advisors approved my proposal and I have made significant progress in the past 2 weeks, having met with both of my advisors and looked at issues of American Vogue through my newly established methodology. I even watched a 4 part documentary series entitled Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne that Dr. Lent recommended for my research, which initiated my whole writing process. At this point, I have written roughly 10 pages and will continue to make revisions, subtractions, and additions in the upcoming weeks. In this past week’s class, I reviewed 2 classmates’ thesis drafts so far. It was intriguing see how greatly some of our projects have changed since fall semester. However, everyone seems to be on a good path and change is a part of the whole writing process. I intend to incorporate feedback into my draft from my class cohort. Going forward, I need to find visuals to bring into class and set up more meetings with my advisors regarding feedback as well as my process and progress. I intend to be fully prepared for and meet all my deadlines. I am looking forward to seeing my hard work pay off and my project proposal coming to fruition. Until then, I will be writing!