Introductions: Danni Kuntz

Hello, everyone! My name is Dannahe Kuntz, also known as Danni. I am a fourth-year Museum Studies major, but I also have interests in other fields, being a dual major in "Humanities, Computing, and Design" and having an immersion in Evolutionary Biology & Ecology.

In terms of my person journey in Museum Studies, it actually started off as my minor. HCD (as Humanities, Computing and Design is often abbreviated to) is my first and primary major, but as someone who has had a lifelong interest in museums, the program enraptured me, and I decided that I not only would take it on as a second major, that I also would choose it for my capstone/thesis.

I have many interests, which is a bit of a problem when deciding what to focus on for a project, or choosing a major, including for grad school, which I am in the process of applying to-- but I've narrowed it down to a few topics by now. However, what I do know is that my project will culminate in an exhibit: ideally a physical one as I already have worked on digital exhibits and want to expand my repertoire, but if necessary I can create a digital exhibit or exhibit prototype.

At the moment, these are the topics I am considering:

-Everyday life in Ancient Rome

I have always had an interest in Ancient Rome, as well as the everyday lives of Ancient people. In choosing this topic, I seek to humanize people of the past. I like this topic, because it's specific enough to develop a concise exhibit, but expansive enough for me to discuss different aspects of life, and pick whatever piques my interest. (I especially love Roman Graffiti, so if I pick this, I will definitely include it as a part of the project!)

-Design Philosophy and Cultural heritage in Genshin Impact

 Yes, this is a very specific topic! I have actually already focused on this topic for another Museum Studies class years ago, but as the game continues to update, the discourse surrounding the game has expanded. Genshin Impact is particularly interesting to me, because there are many things it does regarding designs & cultural heritage that are done incredibly well, and other aspects that border on abysmal. In this hypothetical project, I can speak on the complexities of Genshin Impact's design philosophy and representation of cultural heritage. One potential downside of this topic is that because of its specificity, it may be hard to find peer-reviewed sources. I am sure I could create enough content out of this to fill an exhibit, but a larger than desired portion of information would be from less formal sources.

-Internet Communities and/or Fandom culture 

These two often go hand-in-hand. This topic is sort of a love letter to my adolescence, covering communities that shaped me into the person I am today. Being a very contemporary topic (Alongside my second topic), there may not be a large pool of academic resources, but I think what exists will be sufficient, although I know that what I focus on will definitely be inspired by the range of specific internet culture topics covered by academia.

I also had other topics I was considering, such as The Permian Era and its animals, Anomalocaris, the domestication and history of cats, Carthage, and early human evolution. Many of these are related to evolutionary biology, and while it is still a topic I am very interested in, I think choosing a subject that has more room for interpretation would be beneficial.