One of the most important pieces of advice I have received came from my 7th grade ELA teacher who said “if you are going to read, make an attempt to understand it through the lens of what is going on in your own life and only then, will you be immersed in the author’s experience.” And he was right. Understanding literature is more complex than just reading it. It is important to pay attention to the importance of an author’s work during the time they published it and the impact they were hoping to make. This course, Literature, Medicine, and Racism, allowed folks to immerse themselves in the author’s experience by unpacking different events that occurred in different stories and making a connection between current events happening now. The course epigraph, “my job is to notice…and to notice that you can notice” played a significant role in understanding our literature this semester and motivated us to take a critical look at the books we were reading. Everyone’s ideas, understandings, and processings of the texts we read were different. We all came from different academic backgrounds and provided different perspectives on the text we read. But, that’s what was wonderful about the experience. Our job was to notice. It was not only Dr. McCoy’s role or Kya’s. Their role might have been to facilitate our noticings but not to completely make it seen. This allowed us to develop leadership, and autonomy of our own learning and led to incredible peer to peer group discussions about the importance of different topics such as racial injustices, gender equity, self-perception, and most importantly, being able to differentiate when something was done in good or bad faith. But, it is important to note that “noticing” was only the first step. Our work this semester involved unpacking textual evidence, thinking critically about the importance of an author’s writing, and making key connections to society today.
Continue reading “Healing through Reading”To Fail is to Succeed by Practice
Today, many motivational quotes and statements are seen as clichés due to its repetition and being overused. One phrase in particular, “failure is inevitable” was built upon the idea that one fails and struggles throughout their life. This thought provoking phrase has been deemed as a cliché–by society (my friends included)–, but what counts as three individual words serves as an underlying significant reflective meaning, for me at least.
Continue reading “To Fail is to Succeed by Practice”
Exploring Collaborative & Interdisciplinary Work
By: Sarah Bracy, Lauren Ngo, & Jose Romero
In our first blog post as a team, titled “Starting Over After the End of the World”, we were successful due to our ability to communicate with each other effectively and work collaboratively. Because we worked so well as a team for our first blog post, a few of us decided to do a couple more together, now that we are finally able to utilize each other’s strengths and knowledge in the most efficient manner. Our post turned out to be even better than we planned because it brought together all of our individual ideas and transformed them into something interdisciplinary and multifaceted. However, this polished final product started off as a pile of scraps that we didn’t quite know what to do with at first. Continue reading “Exploring Collaborative & Interdisciplinary Work”
GLOBE and Us
Collaboration By: Laura Montes & Jose Romero
During our first semester of our freshman year, we have learned more than we anticipated. We grew as readers, writers, and students. This is in part by the Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education. It states, “Geneseo students should gain practice in “integrative inquiry,” defined in part as the ability to “synthesize multiple bodies of knowledge to address real-world problems and issues.” If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. English 101’s midterm exam focused on how reading Jemisin’s fiction helped us in the practice of fulfilling that learning outcome. Continue reading “GLOBE and Us”
And so, oppression continues [pt 2]
Part 2 serves as a continuation of the first blog post I wrote about earlier. There is just so much room for interpretation, analyzation, and unpacking that I decided to break it apart and continue it here. So, enjoy! Continue reading “And so, oppression continues [pt 2]”
Oh, Oppression! How much we’d like for you to leave… [pt 1]
What if the world were a utopian society? One where we did not have to worry about race, gender, ethnicity, color, wealth level, education status, or accessibility to resources? Ah, yes! A world like that may sound weird, and maybe even unrealistic, but it would solve a variety of societal issues– systematic inequality included. Continue reading “Oh, Oppression! How much we’d like for you to leave… [pt 1]”
Power + Authority in Damaya’s Narrative
“Pick up your book”, “Be quiet!”, and “I told you to..” are all examples of commands, directives, and instructions that we in one way or another have encountered throughout our lifetime. But, what makes us obey them? Well, we obey our commands due to the idea that a figurehead or authority figure told us to do so. These individuals include, but are not limited to: our parents, teachers, family members, and many more. Continue reading “Power + Authority in Damaya’s Narrative”
Catching a Drift of Fear
FEAR. Don’t we all have it? Don’t we all own it? What do you fear?
I fear failure.
- Failure of not knowing something.
- Failure of not being be aware of what’s happening.
- Failure of not being on track.
- Failure of not asking for support.
- Failure of owning up to my fear.
And most important, I fear self-disappointment. Continue reading “Catching a Drift of Fear”
The World of Children: Immigrant & Orogene Bound
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“When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. Now, we don’t have to prosecute them, but then we’re not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. That’s not good.” ~Donald Trump
Many believe that in 2016, the world entered its “fifth season” when the political climate of the United States grew in controversy. Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president and became a striking figure in the media. Continue reading “The World of Children: Immigrant & Orogene Bound”
The Beginning of Utter Confusion
The Beginning of Utter Confusion
On the first day of our English class and I was very excited to delve into the trilogy series we were required to purchase. Surprisingly, although it was only the syllabus day, I came out of class thinkING about the ways in which it was structured.