UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH BLOGS
The Office of Undergraduate Research sponsors a number of grant programs, including the Circumnavigator Club Foundation’s Around-the-World Study Grant and the Undergraduate Research Grant. Some of the students on these grants end up traveling and having a variety of amazing experiences. We wanted to give some of them the opportunity to share these experiences with the broader public. It is our hope that this opportunity to blog will deepen the experiences for these students by giving them a forum for reflection; we also hope these blogs can help open the eyes of others to those reflections/experiences as well. Through these blogs, perhaps we all can enjoy the ride as much as they will.
EXPLORE THE BLOGS
- Linguistic Sketchbook
- Birth Control Bans to Contraceptive Care
- A Global Song: Chris LaMountain’s Circumnavigator’s Blog
- Alex Robins’ 2006 Circumnavigator’s Blog
- American Sexual Assault in a Global Context
- Beyond Pro-GMO and Anti-GMO
- Chris Ahern’s 2007 Circumnavigator’s Blog
- Digital Citizen
- From Local Farms to Urban Tables
- Harris Sockel’s Circumnavigator’s Blog 2008
- Kimani Isaac: Adventures Abroad and At Home
- Sarah Rose Graber’s 2004 Circumnavigator’s Blog
- The El Sistema Expedition
- The World is a Book: A Page in Rwand
Mid-Pret Crisis
Dear Sally,
I am currently traveling through London, but I have been having some trouble lately remembering where I am. The other day I was sitting in Pret A Manger, passing the hours working on my laptop before seeing an amazing production of The Crucible and as each hour passed I fell deeper and deeper into the “where am I” pit. At one point I looked up, heard some people talking in British accents, and had to verbally remind myself where I was. Thank goodness for my wits, for I was mere seconds away from asking the locals “so how long have you guys been visiting the states?” However, I fear that something like this is bound to happen again. Do you have any advice?
Sincerely,
Mid- Pret Crisis
Canada Month
Canada Day is a celebration of the creation of Canada, which occurred on July 1, 1867. Brampton’s seniors, meanwhile, have been celebrating Canada Day for the entire month. These celebrations take place in seniors clubs and public parks, with anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred seniors in attendance.
The Gore Seniors Club on Ebenezer Road in Brampton, an all male club. The banner displays “THE GORE SENIORS CLUB” transliterated in Punjabi and Hindi, along with India’s and Canada’s flags.
Canada Day celebrations in seniors clubs provide opportunities for attendees to reflect on and appreciate the circumstances that brought them to Canada, a country they greatly appreciate. Meetings include poetry and songs in Punjabi that speak of Punjab and Canada, how beautiful Canada is, how much the seniors miss Punjab, how grateful they are that they can practice their native culture in a different country. The seniors proudly sing the national anthems of Canada and India, usually putting Canada’s first. Brampton seniors discuss their political concerns, like how they have to pay rent for their community centres while neighboring cities like Mississauga provide such clubs to their seniors for free. Seniors don’t have shuttles that run service to the clubs either, which is of great concern for those with reduced mobility and for transit consideration during hot summer days and cold winter months. Of course, these gatherings provide opportunities for politicians to pitch their campaigns. Politicians, whether Punjabi or not, evoke Pierre Trudeau, father of Canada’s policy of multiculturalism, who paved the way for the large contingents of immigrant populations in the region. Jon Sprovieri, Regional Councillor of wards 9 and 10 in Brampton, comments on how he has seen Brampton celebrate Canada Day more than any other city.
Castlemore Senior Club meeting, July 27. Behind the pitched tents was open standing space bordered by flags, half Indian, half Canadian.
These functions fly two flags, speak of two countries, but treat Canada as home. Brampton is an accidental experiment in suburban development, a city that grew too fast for its planners to properly keep up. This city has seen its population explode in the past few decades, leading to a town densely populated by 100,000 Punjabis. Seniors often live in the same houses as their grandchildren, creating bilingual households, the immigrant parents and grandparents speaking Punjabi, the Canadian-born, English. The Canadian-born, ideally, grow up fluently bilingual, but their grandparents are reasonably anxious about how well this generation will retain its mother tongue. Seniors clubs conduct their meetings in Punjabi, though they address the concerns of Brampton, an overgrown suburb with no university of its own. A residential colony whose economy is sustained by housing developments. The accounting jobs are all in Mississauga, the education in Toronto. Seniors bring up these topics out of concern for their grandchildren and for the place they call home. Tables in the back of the hall, or underneath a side tent, house pakoras, samosas, jalebis, Coke, Sprite, all drinks served in Styrofoam cups. The seniors turn to Indian politics, opening discussions over chai or instant coffee and cards: the troubling drug culture in Punjab, the Parliamentary majority of the BJP, the political parties in control of Punjab. As in AKakaAmazing’s mock news segments, the political concerns of Brampton and Punjab exist side by side, the flags of Canada and India flying proudly together. Canada Day for the city of Brampton is as much a celebration of Canada’s founding as it is of the community’s Punjabi heritage, the concerns of both very much alive among its senior members.
Fieldwork and Exploration
Wednesday July 23rd marked my second week out of the hospital and my fifth week into the trip. It was also my first day of fieldwork, an accumulation of six months of preliminary research, two months of editing a survey, one month of talking with Senegalese political leaders, and several weeks of finding a research assistant. After doing all this, I just had to trust my preparation and finally do what I came here to do.
Leading up to that day, I had been meeting with my recently hired research assistant to plan out which neighborhoods and which days I would be surveying. His name is Macadou, a doctoral linguistic student who is one of the nicest, most generous people I have met. He is abundantly enthusiastic about my project that he frequently emphasizes that he does not care about the money. He even invited me to meet his family at his hometown Thiès, which is two hours away from Dakar.
My survey seeks to capture the political opinions of Senegalese youth aged 18 to 30 in the capital city. For the next three weeks, Macadou and I plan to walk throughout 8 different neighborhoods in Dakar to survey at least 15 people in each neighborhood, aiming for a total of at least 120. I purposely chose the eight neighborhoods, or communes d’arrondissments, out of the 19 in the city to properly represent its youth population, covering multiple socioeconomic and social characteristics. The demographic geography of Dakar, a city of one million, is fairly simple. The wealthier downtown port area is located in the south of the peninsula and the further north you go, neighborhoods become increasingly disadvantaged and impoverished especially in the suburbs, a spatial trend that contrasts with that of the typical American city. I will survey these struggling suburbs, or banlieues, as well as middle-class neighborhoods close to the downtown area. Within each neighborhood, I will randomly survey households by counting off every 10 houses and making sure I cover ground in all areas of the neighborhood.
Map of Dakar
Since Wednesday, my research assistant and I have completed four days of fieldwork and gathered 30 total survey responses in two middle-class neighborhoods, Grand Yoff and SICAP Liberté. A typical fieldwork day starts at 8 A.M. and ends around 3 P.M. The amount of time that it takes for subjects to finish my survey has taken an average of 20 minutes, which is longer than I expected, so I may not get as many responses as I initially planned. Besides that, Macodou and I have not encountered major problems as people have been open and welcoming to us. In a typical Senegalese home, there are usually up to 15 people living together. A maid often answers our knock or doorbell and directs us to the oldest member of the household, the father or mother. Macadou explains my research project and asks if there is any young person aged 18 to 30. If the family approves of our study and a young member agrees to participate, the family invites us to sit next to them in their living rooms, bed rooms, or in the courtyard while the person fills out the survey on my iPad tablet. We have found ourselves in a variety of homes: from crowded, run-down huts to well-furnished, air-conditioned apartments. We have interviewed college students, women with children, working men, young maids, Muslims and Christians. Sometimes, we are with the person alone in a quiet room and other times, we are among a group of other housemates gossiping about their everyday lives. For a handful of respondents who were not literate in French, Macadou would explain every question in Wolof, the indigenous language. Translating this way and appropriately approaching Senegalese households are exactly the reasons why I need him. Some of my participants were clearly more interested in politics than others, but people generally responded with a ostensible care for their country, no matter how many problems it faced. We have encountered many households where the people are not present, not available, or not willing but overall, I have been delighted by the hospitality, or teranga, that Senegalese people are known for.
Walking through Grand Yoff
SICAP Liberté, which is more middle-class than Grand Yoff
Although my survey and methodology are sound, I have approached my fieldwork with tempered expectations. Unlike Afrobarometer, an independent research organization that conducts public opinion surveys in 35 African countries and yields teams of professional fieldworkers, I am one undergraduate student with limited funding and time. I only have about 2 weeks remaining and I still have to go to the hospital almost everyday to change my bandage for post-surgery maintenance. Given these circumstances I know it will be difficult to get enough respondents for my results to be statistically significant. I am determined to gather as many survey responses as possible until my departure date. Later, I can decide how to best analyze the data and pinpoint how my findings apply to the current state of Senegalese politics.
On my way to a full recovery from the surgery, I have not only made strides in my project but I have also begun to explore the city again! Here are some of my visits described in pictures:
In front of the Presidential Palace
In front of the Legislative Assembly
Downtown
Shop at Marché Kermel
Bought some great statues from a native sculptor
Enjoyed a free contemporary dance show
Marché at Grand Yoff
Lunch by the coast with a friend from the Korean Embassy
African Renaissance Monument, the tallest statue in Africa
Mosquée de la Divinité
Friends and I at Ngor Island
After a busy week of surveying, I have about three days off because the end of Ramadan is coming up tomorrow, Tuesday July 29th! Most young Senegalese who left their rural hometowns to pursue an education in Dakar, like my research assistant, return home to their families to celebrate one of the most significant days of the year. La Fête de Ramadan or La Korité marks the end of a month-long fast in which 95% of the country participates. Senegalese people will rejoice in the name of Allah with food and family, as no one will be working on this holiday. Apparently, it is the one day that this country embraces eating lots of meat and yesterday, I saw my family preparing over 30 pieces of beef along with traditional dishes and desserts! As a food lover, I could not be more excited.
Until next time,
Kenny
peesa peesa
I’d like to step aside from being scholarly for a moment to share how much Punjabis love pizza. I’ve had pizza seven times in the last ten days, some of it cheap fast food, some very good sit-down, and another kind in an entirely different category: Indian pizza.
If you’re curious: http://www.popularpizza.ca/.
There’s butter chicken pizza, tandoori chicken pizza, tandoori paneer pizza, plain paneer pizza, and the list goes on. To see photos, click the link. I’ve eaten too much pizza recently to want to look at pictures of it right now.
A Parents guide to TYA Theatre Going
Fun guide to parents/grandparents when taking kids to the theatre, based on discussions I have had with the pros! (Some are obvious, some seem counterintuitive at first, but then make complete sense).
Conversation- though comments such as “look at that tiger!” or “do you see, the food just disappeared!” seem helpful to making sure children are involved in the story, these comments actually pull them out of the story. However, chatting about the performance after is always fun!
Phones- while TYA is geared towards children, that doesn’t mean it’s time to cruise through your emails. The shows are not only fun to watch (depending on the quality of the performers), watching the children’s reactions are priceless.
Choosing a show- If you are looking for really quality TYA, type in ASSITEJ America or ASSITEJ USA in on google, and look through the members. This is the Theatre for Young Audiences official website for the USA, and all the companies on there should be great!
Theatre for Family vs. Theatre for Young Audiences- I think I have said this before, but these are two very different things. Theatre for Family is fun for you because there are usually some jokes thrown in for parents/ older children. This is great because it really can appeal to people with five children, each three years apart. However, the youngsters sometimes get taken out of the story because of the winks at the adults, they want to be in the know too! Therefore, it is also really nice to take the young ones to see shows specifically for them, so they are in on all the jokes!
Age range- sometimes, age range is fluid, other times, it is super important. Doing a little research before seeing the show will help heighten the engagement of the child! (I saw a show a couple weeks back that was a little disturbing, and ten minutes before the show a mom with a twelve year old realized what it was about. Reading up would have saved them a little bit of money, and a little less stress!) You don’t need to follow this religiously however, it is just a good guideline — the people making the age range usually know what they are doing!
Anything Can Happen
I went to see a musical revue of this name yesterday, with songs written by none other than Stiles and Drewe (the duo that wrote Honk, Mary Poppins, and a bunch of other amazing shows), and it was great! The actors did excerpts from a variety of their shows including Soho Cinders, which intertwines elements of Cinderella with a homosexual political scandal (and if you are looking for a great soundtrack to listen to, I suggest this one. The song “I’m so over men” is a great upbeat fun song!). There were songs from Stiles and Drewe’s version of Peter Pan, which by golly someone needs to bring to the states. They wrote a song called Never land- which refers to never landing when flying. If you are like me, your mind is blown (and also slightly embarrassed that you never connected Neverland with never land).
I then spent the afternoon with David Wood, and each time I chat with him I find him more and more inspirational (and totally cool). I found out yesterday that he also wrote the play that was presented to the Queen on her 80th birthday (that was broadcast on BBC for 8 million viewers!). We discussed the difference between school performances and family performances, and different ways he engages children in theaters and schools alike. For example, when going to a school, he tries to put the windows behind the audience, so they don’t get distracted, and stands in a corner of the room, so the audience’s focus is even more focused. Also, if he is doing a show for children 3-11, he asks that the 3-year-olds be put a couple of rows back. At first, that seemed a little odd to me, but it makes sense- if he is standing, everyone seated on the floor will be able to see him regardless of height. It also gives the young ones a “security barrier” between themselves and the story; if they get scared during the story, there is a distance between them and the storyteller. These minor details keep the children much more engaged.
As David says “children are devious creatures, and half the time if they go to the bathroom during a performance it is because they are bored. My job is to keep children from going to the WC for an hour” and it was really fun learning some of the tricks that he uses!
Thursday Afternoon at the Dead Houses
We made our way back to Ithaka to meet with Rob Levitsky on Thursday afternoon. The home was quiet, once again, when we arrived, so we decided to open the fence and walk into the backyard. The “backyard” spans nearly an acre. It includes several other houses that are used as community homes. There’s a positive, playful, and environmentally friendly attitude surrounding Ithaka’s yard – a basketball hoop, a garden, a large tree with a swing, tie dyed t-shirts fading in the sun, and good people.
Rob, who lives in one of the Dead Houses next to Ithaka, was sitting at a table when we arrived. There were three empty glasses, apple cider, bananas, blueberries, and ice cream on the table – this couldn’t be a coincidence. Rob provided an exceptional historical context regarding the Bay Area and entrepreneurship. He brought up the Gold Rush, and explained how he believes there has always been an air of entrepreneurship in California. He talked to us about his experience with alternative living styles, and told us about some of his past residents who have decided to take a more radical approach to communal living. A couple of his previous tenants started the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri – check out their website here!
We were particularly interested in his thoughts about whether or not communal living within the tech and startup worlds here are in a coincidence or not.
“OK, now we’re going to do something hippie,” said Rob as he picked up the apple cider. He then started pouring the cider into a blender that was attached to a bicycle to the left of the table. He put the rest of the ingredients into the blender and asked one of us to get on the bike and start peddling. At this point, one of the other house residents, a Stanford graduate turned musician/filmmaker, had joined us to chat after asking if we were the girls who were coming to film.
“So do you guys want to see the music room now? I recorded an album there last summer,” said the Ithakan at the table with us. We left the table and walked a couple houses down to a little shed with several string instruments and drums hanging on the wall, monitors, a whiteboard full of lyrics, and art pieces sitting on shelves. Two guys, also residents, were in the room working on music when we entered. After a couple minutes in the music room, Rob turned to us and said, “well, I guess now we should go tie-dye some t-shirts outside, right?” What an uncanny afternoon.
Sunday Dinner
family: a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head
Every Sunday, the Rainbow Mansion has a “family dinner”, in which friends and extended Rainbow-community members come over to enjoy a meal with the house residents. Each week, a different member of the house is in charge of preparing a meal for the house residents and guests. This week, Andrea was in charge of cooking, and she made a traditional Venezuelan dish. It took hours for her to make, so I spent almost the entire day in the kitchen with her. We shared stories about our families, both good and bad. There wasn’t much small talk. Although we have only known each other for a couple of weeks, I find that the conversations I have with Andrea are those I have only with my closest of friends. We’ve quickly connected, as we share similar world-views despite our vastly different cultural backgrounds, and we are both interested in engaging in intellectual discussions (even if it is on Saturday night at a party). I’ve found this connection with others in Silicon Valley, including all of the residents of Rainbow. This aspect of Rainbow illustrates the belief that the co-op is an “intentional community”, and because of the diversity of age, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, I would call it an intentional extended family. Several people passed through the kitchen throughout the evening to help Andrea prepare the meal by offering to do different cooking tasks.
As I set the large dining room table with as many plates as I could fit, a nostalgic wave came over me. I felt like I was about to have dinner with my actual family. Not my “nuclear family” – my extended family. It felt like a Sunday dinner, in the middle of the summer, at my grandmother’s house, with all of my aunts and uncles, cousins, and other relatives. The cross-generational nature of The Rainbow Mansion is palpable at large meals. It was especially noticeable this Sunday, because an older man, who is considering moving into the mansion, came over to meet all of the residents.
I think part of the reason I feel so at home here is because of the large age differences between different members of the house. We all come from such different backgrounds, but the traditional familial roles remain in a different way. While the 21st century has caused many young people to move away from their blood-related family to pursue careers, this is an opportunity to feel like you always have a true extended family close by. This is so much more than “young kids living together to save money on housing” – this is truly a reconstructed model of how people can live and grow together within a “family”.
when faces called flowers float out of the ground
I’m not going to lie, earlier this week/the end of last week, I hit a bit of a wall with this project. It was rough- I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, like I wasn’t good enough at post-tonal music theory to understand the music I was working with, and, most frequently, like all the work I was doing wouldn’t amount to anything cohesive. Then, two days ago, three factors put me back on track. Those three are now all going to get shoutouts: 1. My glorious voice professor and second mother, Sunny Joy Langton, and her sass, reminding me that if I want something to get done, I just have to do it. 2. My rockstar of a friend, Chuck Foster, sitting around with me in a practice room, sightreading Argento and Ricky Ian Gordon and letting me vent about the stress of research and the lack of available information on my studies (which is, of course, why research in this area is even valid in the first place… silly me!). And 3, my mother reminding me that even finding nothing is finding something, and that I’m still in the middle of the project/maybe I just need to break out of my music theory tunnel vision for a second and remember that I’ve gathered plenty of useful information. All these things combined with the research lunch we had last Friday, where Peter Civetta reminded all of us URG students that research is hard and basically gave us a pep talk sprinkled with sage advice, and yesterday and today were perhaps the two most productive days of this grant I’ve had so far. Go ‘Cats.
So, what have I done these past 2 days? I found some new resources about Dominick Argento and cummings’s spring/innocence poems, tracked down two more sound files of cummings reading his own work, got more theatre students and tour guides to read the poetry I’m working with, and, best of all, I finished my descriptive analysis of Argento’s set, “Songs About Spring,” complete with proof that my understanding of music theory is still functional. I’m a happy girl.
Since it’s the best part of that list, let’s talk about “Songs About Spring.” The first three songs in this set are actually the first three songs that Argento ever wrote that weren’t later destroyed (arguably very intentionally) and are consequently the earliest vocal works of Argento’s that are available to the world. The two last songs in the set are next in line, though they were written a few years later. And boy do those few years make a difference. The first three songs were extremely difficult for me from a theoretical standpoint: key areas were unclear, chordal functions were largely undiscernable beyond the general “tonic” or “dominant-ish?” labels that filled my first couple copies of the music. But, the further I got into the set, the easier the music became in terms of both singing and comprehension, and this isn’t just because I became more comfortable with the composer’s style. In fact, it’s remarkable how clearly you can see Argento gravitating towards tonality and more singable/”vocal” melodies from a place of quasi-tonality. Some of his writings about his life at the time detail his complicated relationship with his composition teacher at the time, from whom he claims he did not learn much at all other than the details of Stravinsky’s life, and how he began to develop once leaving his professor’s studio after graduating. I suppose it goes to show that practice does actually pay off. You can also see the influence of his wife, for whom the set is written, as it goes on; he often refers to her in interviews as his muse and details her impact on his growing skill to write music which is uniquely effective for the voice (as opposed to vocal lines which are more instrumental in quality).
Like the Gordon set, I’d sung one piece from “Songs About Spring” a few years before this project began: the final song, a waltz setting of “when faces called flowers float out of the ground.” While I liked it at the time, I didn’t understand it nearly as completely, and spending time with it on a more intellectual level today caused me to rush to the practice room to see if my research would make a difference in the way I sang it. I’m extremely happy to say that it absolutely did. And, on top of it, I’ve also fallen in love with the fourth song in the set, a simple echo-duet setting of “in” (commonly referred to as “in Spring comes” for clarity’s sake) where the voice and piano perform the same melody in canon and harmonize one another in a more antique, but incredibly musical, style. (Perhaps this set will find its way onto my senior recital! Who knows?) My annotations for this set have evolved into a system of color coding, which is pretty evident on the one page of music which makes up “in Spring comes” in its entirety:
And, just so you can see the poem:
in
Spring comes(no-
one
asks his name)a mender
of thingswith eager
fingers(with
patient
eyes)re-new-
ing remaking what
other
-wise we shouldhave
thrown a-way(and whose
brook
-bright flower-
soft bird
-quick voice loveschildren
and sunlight andmountains)in april(but
if he should
Smile)comesnobody’ll know
So, I think this means that tomorrow I’m moving on to the two sets of Canadian composer John Beckwith. I also may have found another set worth pursuing by a female American composer- but more on that if/when I track it down!
Hooray for research! Go ‘Cats,
Véronique
Feed the World
How is this possible, I thought to myself, looking out across lush papaya fields growing from what appeared to be an expansive desert. We were in Nueva Esperanza, a poverty stricken desert town along the coast of Northern Peru, visiting a family that participates in Feed the World’s programming.
Feed the World’s mission is to “create self-reliance in all facets of life.” Feed the World works through extensive education programs, all centered around their own small-scale agricultural model. Though the land here is dry, it can produce an abundance of vegetables, grains, and fruit with proper dry farming technique. The team of educators works individually with every family to teach them how to use their own land to produce a plethora of nutritious food. They’ve been working alongside the government and universities in Peru to continue increasing the sustainability and impact of their programs.
Feed the World helps families to break away from the monocropping agriculture standard in the area, and assists them in planting new vegetable gardens, raising small livestock to eat, and growing field crops for supplemental income. They also engage the families in lessons about nutrition and hygiene, showing them new ways to use the crops that they are growing.
So far, their projects have been a huge success. In just over one year, the rates of childhood malnutrition have been cut in half, from around 80% to less than 40%. Families are earning more money, eating healthier foods, and practicing healthy and hygienic home habits. It’s been fascinating to observe how a program largely focused on agriculture and livestock is having a profound impact on health in the region.