Plans For the Break

My first goal over winter break is to put finishing touches on my literature review. I know I will receive feedback with my final submission and I am hoping to revise and complete an almost finished section before going into next semester. I would also like to take any critiques towards my outline and refine or change the groupings/name to better fit my thesis. I want to get the majority of my project done during winter break, focusing on my online platform which means:

1. Creating an Outline: How I want the platform to be set up. What information I would like to include and how these themes could be grouped.
2. Writing the Script: Writing the various parts for my sections, ensuring that all of the information is correct and having a base that I can continue to edit throughout the first part of the spring semester.
3. Choosing Visuals: Choosing what visuals I would like to include on the platform I am creating.  Also examining what steps I need to take in putting them on the site. I would love to include photographs, letters, audio, and if possible some video. I think this would add to the visitor experience and allow them to engage with the material presented.

I've found that this semester my time management skills have not been the best. I think I really need to sit down before winter breaks starts and make a goal sheets, that has specific dates when I need to have certain steps of my project complete. This will help me focus on what needs to be completed, and also stay on track instead of working on multiple things at the same time. Hopefully I will accomplish all of these tasks and come back in spring semester, with an almost completed project!

Things Change

As I've tackled my thesis and done research upon research my thesis has slowly changed bit by bit. The main aspect of it that has changed has been where my intended focus was. When I first started putting my thesis together and thinking about what it would like I imagined it to remain pretty routed in just repatriation and then adding on some nebulous technological aspect. As I've done my research, however, it has taken on a very education and public history twist. I've spent more time than I thought considering and looking into the way public history interacts with local identity and how best to educate others on these sorts of topics. It wasn't where I thought my thesis was going but I think it's interesting and I'm curious to see where it will go and how it will further change

How Has It Changed?

My project has not really changed, however you can say the research idea has expanded. When I first began the research for my thesis, I only had a general idea of what I wanted to do. As the semester went on, I decided to hone in more on my research and create a specific idea for my research. I know now I want to focus on Mental Health in New York-based schools specifically.

I see it evolving to maybe focusing on a specific grade in the school, based on curriculum already written by New York. I hope to create a lesson plan based around a specific mental health issue and be able to create awareness for students in the school. I know I still want to connect with schools in the Rochester area and be sure to work with them and know what they are already doing now for the mental health of their students.

Post #6: The Evolution of a Project, The Re-birth of a Child

When I first decided on this project idea, I was thinking about identifying European influences in African and Asian museums because I thought it would be interesting to see just how much European museum practices have become the standard around the world. I wanted to add some sort of practical element to it, which I why I added the part about the African and Asian museums decolonizing their practices and incorporating their indigenous cultures. I knew I had to pick a case study institution in order to focus the discussion around specific museum practices. I eventually decided on Zimbabwe as the location for my case study because their museum community is working on decolonization and promotion of indigenous cultures. I picked the BaTonga Community Museum as the case study institution because it embodied the ideals of the Zimbabwean museum decolonization movement. Even though I had my case study and nation picked out, my research question still included the wide umbrella of "African and Asian museums." I realized that it was way too broad, so now, I am only focusing on Zimbabwe.

I will probably still talk about general decolonization applications, but that will likely only happen if I compare Zimbabwean museums to museums in other countries, discuss global museum trends, or propose general courses of action in the conclusion of the thesis. As my my project progresses, I can see it evolving to include more anthropological perspectives, since I would like to dig into why culturally informed museum practices are important, and how the public can be affected by them. Depending on what I learn about various Zimbabwean museums, I may change my case study to a different museum, but as of right now, I am working with my current pick.

Changes to my Research!

My research question in particular has changed over the course of the semester. As I've done more and more research into my topic and talked more to my professors about the Hostile Terrain exhibition I've shifted my question to become more focused. My purpose in the exhibition will be more public and community outreach and helping to table writing events that contribute to the exhibition. To follow in line with my purpose in the exhibition I've made my research question this: "How do museums and exhibitions engage visitors and their communities with contemporary human rights issues, such as the humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border?" Now I've taken a greater focus in visitor/community engagement and contemporary human rights issues. I have also found two case examples for my research which I've already begun to read about! I am using the Tenement and Holocaust Museums in New York City. Each one has amazing projects to reach out to their visitors and surrounding communities to engage with not only historical, but contemporary human rights issues such as immigration, refugees, genocide, and antisemitism. From this I see my research evolving to include doing short impromptu interviews with people in the writing sessions for the Hostile Terrain Exhibition to gain insight on their feelings and thoughts about engaging with this material and about being a part of the exhibition.

My Idea for the Future

For the first couple of months I held pretty true to my original idea. Although as I continue to gather research and narrow down my topic, it seems that I keep tweaking various parts of my thesis and concept. My topic is no longer focused primarily on the digital space and the role interactivity plays. It seems to have shifted. I'm now examining how a digital space portrays a narrative/storyline and what role can users play in the content generated for the site. With this change I need to re-conceptualize my original thesis statement and continue to narrow down what topics are important to my paper. I'm happy with this new direction!

I believe that my ideas about my thesis will continue to evolve and change. But because I am happy with these new ideas, I feel like I can move forward with the project part of my thesis, and start the visual process. I have also officially decided to work with ArcGIS because of its story mapping capabilities. I think this platform will help me form an engaging narrative and think more in depth about what content users would like to see on this type of platform.

How has my project changed so far?

I'm pleased to report that my choice of topic has continued to solidify since my first blog post in September. I'm still just as dedicated to AJ Sperr and Sperr Memorial Park now as I was then.

Some things, however, have changed, and some important realizations have been made. I've played a bit with my research question (the current draft uses the term "emotional recontextualization," so I'm quite excited about that), and I've narrowed the scope of my project to make things more feasible. I've also been benchmarking potential software to make my app/audio tour, and submitted an application to the COLA Student Research Fund. All in all, things have started moving on the project front!

On the research/writing front, things are...dawdling. Writing the literature review has taught me that I've picked up quite a few bad habits throughout the course of my undergrad career, and I'm learning to remedy that ASAP. I spent the past weekend analyzing my current writing and time management skills, and have developed some new strategies that I'm looking forward to applying in the weeks ahead. As some of you can probably also attest, there are growing pains involved in academic writing, but I'm ready to see where this takes me. If I come out of this a better writer, then I'll have at least partially succeeded.

As of right now, I see my project having a life beyond the thesis deadline. By that, I mean that there'll be long-term maintenance involved as this project continues to grow and evolve well after May 2020. There's stories still to be told and there'll always be memories left to uncover at Sperr Memorial Park. I can't see the big picture just yet, but I can already tell that this project is going to have a ripple effect.

Things have changed for me!!

My topic has changed so many time and I am still not sure that it's down packed. it went from theatre to dioramas to VR and lastly visitor emotion. Now I hope to focus on a specific case study and discuss how this diorama and its VR experience make visitors feel. At first, I wanted it to be a project-based thesis, but now I see it is going to research all the way. Even though I am upset by this, I see my thesis ending up to be an interesting conversation on visitor's emotions and dioramas. the case study I have chosen is one at the RMSC, therefore I hope to learn a lot of interesting things that I can use after the thesis is over!
As the semester reaches its peak and stress levels rise, I can see that in the end, I will be happy that when this is over!       

Blog Post 6- Topic Evolution

After going back to look at what I was cooking up in September I don't think my topic has changed all that much. In our original posts about potential ideas I said that for a language based thesis I wanted to look at how visitor experience is impacted by language in the museum and how language could be adjusted to be welcoming for the broadest swath of visitors. In my research and our most recent lit review my sources focused on language and power and meaning making in the museum. I feel like I've stayed true to my original idea while drilling down and thinking about what I want the end goal for this project to be.

I currently see myself offering recommendations for language use in the museum with my final submission and that may change as time goes on but I do like the direction my thesis is heading in. I'm hoping to strike a balance between linguistic concepts and museum theory to make the project relevant to both fields. I think my big next step is to decide on if I need to include a specific case study in the project and if so how would I do that? I'm thinking that it would be a group of museums in a city with a diverse population and I would spend winter break going to these museums and documenting their language use. It might be more achievable to do this in Rochester but if I do that I need to start making connections with institutions soon so they know what I'm trying to do and give me the okay on it.

Blog post 6: how has my topic evolved?

This is it, the penultimate blog post of this semester! At this point, it's really about choosing objects, creating a lesson plan, and executing it. And yes, I still need to choose objects. I went to the RMSC last weekend and picked a bunch of toys, but had a terribly difficult time trying to create a lesson framework for them. After a great chat with Dr. Decker, I now have a slightly different plan of attack, start creating the lesson framework first, and find objects to fill in the gaps. The good news is this happened in early November, so I still have plenty of time to get everything done.

That all being said, my topic hasn't evolved too much since it was first conceived. With each step I get a clearer vision of what the end product will look like, but it's more like it's slowly coming into focus, and less like it's a completely different topic altogether. I imagine that as the framework gets built, objects get chosen, and the lesson plan starts to shape up, it will only become clearer still.

What I am learning about my thesis

I have a more concentrated topic now, I am exploring college aged girls and possibly using Campus Curls on campus as a resource but to use the women in that group to interview. In terms of sources, I am having a hard time finding written work on Campus Curls to tie into my sources but due to Project Muse I have found some really resourceful books and pieces by black women discussing their hair and analyzing it through different topics and mediums. I have also found lots of oral histories that tie into surveys that are help make larger observations. I am also learning that there are more contemporary works out there!

I still need to know if there are more accurate sources in terms of my literature review but thinking ahead, for my project I need to start learning about equipment. Asking my advisors if there are more sources for oral history, tips for condensing my project more and what equipment is attainable to interviewing my subjects.