Hello!
For my thesis, I wanted to expand on a project I've been piecing together since my first year of college. It is about the stigma of black hair and how it affects black women in the society. I wanted to focus on the corporate world and how the stigma can trickle down into micro aggressions. I want to focus on how those words or rules being implemented can take a toll on how black women feel about themselves and their image.
I want to develop this to be more project based with interviews of women from a variety of ages including RIT students. I want to include transcribing and maybe some media (video footage, photography). I think because it is such a niche topic, visuals and first hand perspectives can be really helpful.
I want to explore how an exhibition with shared authority of a narrative can look in contrast to how museums usually tell a person or peoples story. I want to prove how first hand accounts can engage and educate visitors in such a different way.
I am open to suggestions on how to make this project more concise or how to include more topics from the museum discourse that would work well with my project.
Hey Leah! I really love this idea, I remember you did a project about this in a previous class that we've taken together and I really loved what you did with it. Can't wait to see what you do with it, there are a ton of directions you can go!
ReplyDeleteI love this topic! Are you going to develop an exhibit plan and then compare it with specific exhibits done by museums that did not involve oral history or shared authority? You'll have to research specific cases - ideally related to Black culture. If you can't find exhibits about Black culture, maybe try other minority cultural groups.
ReplyDeletePerfect topic Leah, I would to volunteer to give my experience, dealing with my hair!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Leah, this topic has so many threads to it - and you've pointed out a number of them above. I love that you are hoping to focus on first-person accounts of individuals because I agree with you that they can be powerful, perhaps in a way that third-person storytelling can't.
ReplyDeleteYou might consider working with a student in photojournalism to work together to document stories. An interesting location might be the public market, as it's a busy spot where lots of people visit for a particular purpose and can often take a minute or two to discuss and give feedback.
Looking forward to your next steps, update! – Dr. Decker