Blogs

I spent last semester studying in Denmark and every Thursday as part of my coursework I visited a very small, independent K-10th grade school. The student body (about 150 students total) was predominantly white and there were only two non-ethnic Danish students amongst the approximately 35 8th through 10th graders that I spent most of my time working with. My position at the site was one of a participant-researcher. I worked with the English teacher to lead presentations on and discussions about American culture. I served almost as an ambassador of the United States to students who had never met an American before. I ate lunch with together with the students and chatted with them during breaks. But I was also collecting notes about the classroom culture and even led group interviews at the end of my semester there to gather student perspectives on gender in the classroom – a topic I wrote my final term paper on. I share this background because I want to make clear my position in relationship to the students I worked with. I was not considered a teacher exactly, but I was also not considered a "friend." 

Throughout the time I lived in Beijing, my mandarin has always been known to have a Taiwanese accent, and I sure thought so myself too. Yet, when I moved back to Taiwan for high school, I’ve had multiple times experiencing people asking me where I come from by the way I speak. I remember the very first time it happened was when I bought something at a shop and just happened to talk to the cashier for a bit. In between our conversation she asked me “you’re not from Taiwan aren’t you?” I paused for a bit and said “well, no I grew up in America and I learned most of my mandarin in China.” And she commented “Oh that explains why.”

That was actually the first time I have had someone ask me that, and this made me wonder myself what “accent” do I actually have? People in China say that I have a Taiwanese accent, and people in Taiwan doubt my mandarin accent. Where does my “Asianness” belong? I guess I would consider myself more Taiwanese since my parents are Taiwanese, yet the time I’ve stayed in China influenced me a lot too. It’s interesting to me how people can just tell that from my accent.

     There’s a restaurant in El Paso called “Delicious” that over the generations has become a family tradition. When aunts and uncles who live out of town, and even when I go home for breaks, it is always a must to eat there. The event that took place I would like to discuss in this post happened right outside of this place, our favorite restaurant. When I was in third grade, an elderly lady began appearing outside the building, and would beg. Each time my parents and I went, there she was. It didn’t matter the time of day, how hot or cold it was… it seemed like she was always there. My mom would always give her a little something, and one visit when I was in high school, another lady saw my mom give her money and she muttered, “how disgusting!” Now, I’m not sure if she was referring to my mom giving her money, or to the woman herself, but no matter how she meant it was and is equally haunting to me.

Growing up in a primarily white, upper middle class community—I feel that my childhood could be understood as the “poster child” of white privilege, white obliviousness and white neutrality. For example, throughout my K-12 education, I had to participate in different “cultural events.” On one such occasion, I brought in shortbread (my grandmother’s recipe) to represent my Scottish heritage. But while my family made/ate this shortbread often and I do have Scottish blood in me, my Scottish (and English and German and Irish) ancestry in no way informs my day-to-day lived experience. At the time, I did not think twice about this “cultural” event; it was simply an opportunity to eat yummy food. Looking back, however, I wish my teachers had challenged me to capture and consider my actual culture.

Home is the Environment

To me, home is a place where I feel safe and I am in a loving and warm environment. When I was younger I only saw myself as having one home. However, over the years I have realized that I can have multiple homes. Home is not just a building where I live in. Home to me can consist of anything: location, people, and the environment. In my mind I have multiple homes: Chicago, Wisconsin, Bryn Mawr, and New Zealand. Besides locality, the people around me make me feel at home. Biologically, my family consists of my mom, dad, sister, two uncles, two aunts, and two cousins. My family has always seemed small, however I realized that there are more people in my life who I consider my family.

We've received a letter from Lina Blount, BMC '13, who is now working as the Field Associate with PennEnvironment on their anti-fracking campaign. She found her job through the Environment America Fellowship Program, which is recruiting now for next year's Fellow class--and asks that we share the posting w/ y'all.

Lina also extends an invitation for anyone interested in the Fellowship, curious about what Environment America is and is not, and what role it plays within the broader environmental and social justice movements to get in touch with her--she'd love to be helpful as students consider their steps after the Mawr.

To learn more and apply visit http://jobs.environmentamerica.org/

What Environment America fellows do

As an Environment America fellow, you’ll get a two-year crash course in the nuts and bolts of environmental activism, organizing, advocacy and the kinds of institution-building that can sustain long-term battles.

You’ll work for one of our 29 state affiliates or our national group, and run one of our campaigns. You’ll work alongside a staff person with 5 to 20 years of experience and participate in classroom trainings a few times a year to complement what you learn in the field.

As a fellow, you won’t just learn how to make an impact; you’ll make one. Here are a few examples:

I. Anne:
Welcome!
[rest of us welcome late-comers, get chairs, etc.]

Home work was to read Chapter 1 of
Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle.
Read two opening paragraphs aloud together, and then discuss:
What is going on here? What do you see? (ex: “Mom,” not “my mother”)
focus in on p.o.v.—>
can we re-tell this from the mother’s p.o.v.?
what would this story look like then?
what would be brought to the foreground/what pushed to the background?

II. Sasha:
Your writing assignment for today was to do the same
thing Walls did in the opening pages of her memoir--
to write three pages describing your own mother:
what does she look like on the outside?
What does she feel like on the inside?
We asked you to be as concrete and specific as Walls is, in her first chapter…
to think about who is doing the talking: whose voice is speaking?
Or: who are you, looking @ her? What are your surroundings?
And who is she, looking back @ you and talking to you?
What are her surroundings?

We have since the beginning of our 360-planning been thinking about how we might broker a conversation among-and-between community partners who focus on social justice issues, and those who focus on responding to and minimizing environmental degradation. Dorceta Taylor's visit in early March will direct us to these questions.

In Jody's class today, you began to talk about how we might do this: do we want to bring in people from off-campus land conservation organizations, and similar group of folks from social justice groups (what might motivate them to attend such a session?). Or should the discussion be campus-based? (how might we draw a diverse participation from the affinity groups, and the environmental activists?) "What's that thing that draws different people in?"

Please continue the discussion here....let's try thinking out loud together about how we might do this....

hi everyone!

So Sunday I had a pretty huge allergic reaction, ended up having to take some benedryl and was pretty out of it, so I actually found a recording of Eli Clare reading his text to listen to rather than read. I wanted to share because I thought it was pretty powerful to listen to!

http://eliclare.com/books/exile-and-pride#mp3