December 11, 2015 - 19:16
I really enjoyed the presentations! I thought that they were all interesting in that they made me think about things I had never thought about before. I especially enjoyed Ayesha's presentation about Muslims at Bryn Mawr, because even though there is currently so much backlash against the Muslim community worldwide, it doesn't really seem like a pressing issue to the Bryn Mawr community (which it definitely should be). I don't think there are many mediums through which muslims can express their opinions about current events, and her anecdote about the muslim girl who was asked pointed questions was shocking to me. While race seems to be a prominent issue that is continuously addressed at Bryn Mawr, religion seems more taboo. I think that her research could definitely go further and perhaps she could even start a "Muslims at Bryn Mawr" tour!
As for Jackie and my research, I thought that perhaps our topic was far too broad. We overestimated how much time we would have to present, so we focused more on zoos instead of other aspects of the entertainment industry. Because we had such easy access to a zoo, it was simply easier to visit one and then talk about our findings. If we had more time to do more investigation and research into animals in entertainment, we would try to contact people in animal entertainment industries (not zoos) and discuss the treatment of animals there. We would also like to look at potential solutions for the problems in the animal entertainment industry and see what efforts people are putting into making this industry more humane/reeducating people about how we should treat our animals.