End of the semester reflection

Hi everyone,

I am writing this final article to conclude our semester, and I have to say that I am very happy that I chose this class for my first semester abroad.

First, because it forced be to learn more about the city I am living in for one year than I would have otherwise. It is easy to experience a city’s student life and downtown and thinking that you know the city. I now have a broader picture of it and I also have knowledge about some of its problems.

Secondly, it allowed me to be part of a concrete project in a community that was just nearby, not in another country. This also enabled me to actually talk to the people we were trying to help. It is an experience that I cherish and that I think will be very useful in my future life and studies.

Finally, it was a possibility to work on a group project with very interesting people and we were all very different from each other. This made the concept of intersection of cultures more real to me and I think this aspect contributed a lot to our project.

I also hope that the Martin Middleschool project will be continued in the spring. We have now reached a point where the pictures have been taken, so a huge part of the work has been achieved. It would be great if these pictures could be organized and given a meaning to, by working with the children and by creating a final piece which could be shown to the whole school, like a photo exhibition for example.

I am looking forward to the presentations in the spring.

I hope you all have great holidays and thank you all for your blog posts, the ones I read were often very interesting!

Maria

Gentrification II

I thought that in the Holly Street Neighborhood, the contrast between new and expensive housing and older houses, in which people who probably have a relatively moderate income live in, was very flagrant. The gentrification was very obvious. Concerning Marlo Heights, as there is an active intention to impede the effects of gentrification so it is not a neighborhood known for gentrification.

Finally, Mueller Development is a clear example of massive gentrification at its final point. A neighborhood that was previously inhabited by modest families has been renewed into a place were high-income housings have been built next to one another, completely transforming not only the dynamic but also the population in the neighbourhood. 

Concerning South Africa, we can see that in Johannesburg, the characteristics of gentrification are very similar to what we have seen. For instance, shifts of inhabitants often involves shifts in the ethnicity of the population, and gentrification has an important impact on crime rates.

However, I have the impression that in the Johannesburg Central Business District the type of changes were different than what we have seen for the US. It was a very developed area in the beginning, and has known a "white flight" afterwards, becoming an area where crime became more important and wealthier people fled.

Also, the redevelopment has been aimed towards affordable housing and people of various income. Therefore, it has less negative impact than on the US neighborhoods we talked about. It brings with it job opportunities and economic growth, but is a less radical shift from low-income families to a very wealthy population. It is much less violent, and part of some kind of cycle.

For Holly Street Neighborhood, I think it is important for university students to try and sensitise people on the subject of gentrification. For this, we could create petitions to be signed, and maybe also a video that could be shared on social media.

Students can also go out in the neighborhood and directly talk to the school, the inhabitants as well as to the administration in order to find solutions.

A program of help for people suffering from the causes of gentrification could be initiated, helping them with their current situations and giving them financial support.

Gentrification

These are three important points that I learned through this week's readings:

-Gentrification is used in a negative way, but in fact not all of its implications are negative. The current problem with gentrification is that the positive outcomes of it (such as new buildings and increased economic activity) are not to the benefit of the long-term residents of the area, but to the benefits of the people who have newly arrived.

-Gentrification threatens to completely change a urban area, erasing an important part of its history and therefore richness. This is important not only because a culture's heritage should be valued, but also to the people who have lived in the area and who see their roots in it.

-East Austin is now very different from what it was before and we have to be conscious of the fact that, one century ago, it was a place of segregation. The dynamics and lifestyle that have been built up over the years by the inhabitants of the area have been brutally interrupted and are now not recognisable anymore.

CRAFT

The five stages of the CRAFT model are the following
-Contact, that is building trust and mutual understanding in order to stabilise the partnership.
-Research, that is to learn about the people, places and issues one is working with
-Action, that is the product of art that will benefit the community
-Feedback on the new work in order to spread its impact
-Teaching, that is sustain the impact by passing on skills.

The stages are applied through art, learning and social change.

For the Holly Street Oral History Project, it will be important to do research on the following points:
-The Holly Street community
-Martin Middleschool
-Oral History Project Development
-Projects with children
-Photojournalism

These are three important points I have gained since I started the Global Project Development class:

-When working with people about their past and about their current lives, it is important to be aware of the fact that my expectations or beliefs about certain things might differ from the ones of the people I will be working with. Concerning asking questions for the interview of the oral history project, I have learned from my readings how important it is not to brusk people into things, because we might not be sensitive or hesitant on the same issues. More generally,  is important to respect the environment one enters when developing a project for a community.

-One of the documents related to my project gives detailed recommendations for how to make an interview for oral history. It is very important to have this kind of information because some steps that might seem small are actually very important. I learned that it is important to keep the questions simple, and above all to ask one question at the time. Also, silences are not  a problem, because if an interviewee is thinking about an answer, the outcome might even be more interesting than answers that are rushed. Also, respecting the interviewee and letting him be honest about what is comfortable for her/him, while at the same time being honest ourselves about the objectives of the interview is a key point.

-What I have also learned is how important it is to think about the final visual outcome of the project. It is important to have something very visual at the end in order for the oral history to be effective and to make sense to the children in the school. In order to reach that, it is important to settle on something precise in order to work towards each time we work on the project as a whole. Therefore, it is also important to do research on the visual aspect of the project. For example, we will research on photojournalism in order to document the project through pictures.

Community based Arts - the Insangmahal Arts Collective

While reading the book "Beginner's Guide to community-based arts", a story that really spoke to me was the one about the Insangmahal Arts Collective, which promotes building connection between organisations through art and a particular kind of love.
The initial problem it wanted to respond to was the difficulty for filipino americans to find a place in american society, which led to tearing apart their community.

As the collective grew bigger, it extended its objectives to persons of all kind of backgrounds.
Insangmahal organizes artistic events that aim at bringing different organisations together and allowing different people passing on important messages through their art and for the audience.
I found that idea very interesting, as it conveys this idea of love through sharing. Art of all kind is an important way to bring people together, allow sharing ideas and advocating strong beliefs.
I also found the idea of supporting a US congress law concerning filipino veterans through an Insangmahal event that brought together a coalition of organisations working to pass that law very interesting, because it not only aimed at educating people about an injustice being made, but also incorporated a positive aspect of the subject, that is celebrating the success of this coalition.
Also, I think that such entertaining events that comprise such different ways of expression is an intelligent way to gather people together, as art is something that people regardless of their background are more likely to enjoy than formal conferences or strictly educational event.

White Privileges means that...

...I can hope to get pass a passport check at the airport done very quickly if I say that I will miss my next flight.

...I can apply for a job and be sure that my race will not play against it.

...I can identify with the shampoos that are advertised on TV.

...I can go into a shopping centre and be sure to find clothes that match with my culture. 

...I can find a stick to cover the shadows under my eyes and be sure to find the tone that matches my skin.

...I can be angry when I want and act accordingly without some people attaching this to my race.

5 items for my identity

Hello everyone !

So, I have finally chosen the five items that I want to bring to class in order to present my identity.

The first one is going to be my phone - a Blackberry. I know that it sounds superficial, but if we think about it, it does depict my identity. I use it quite a lot, so it shows that I was born into a generation that uses a lot of technology and social media. In addition, it depicts the fact that I am young and, therefore, in some way, that I am a student "of my time".

The second one I chose is my german and my romanian passport (I combined both into one item). It shows that I come from a multicultural background and that I have different nationalities. It also depicts the fact that, although I was born and I have lived all my life in France, I don't have the French nationality yet. It doesn't bother me very much, but as a political science student, it is quite frustrating not being able to vote in the country with which I politically identify the most.

My third item is a necklace I often wear. I believe that it somehow depicts my gender identity, so the fact that I identify as a female. This is one of the most important things when talking about identity, right ?  It has consequences on how I dress, feel and behave in my every-day life.

The fourth item I chose is a tennis ball. I have played tennis quite intensively for about 9 years and it was a very important experience in my life. It shaped my personality as I started at a very young age and also made me learn how to handle stress and difficult moments. The ball is also meant to show that I still enjoy playing tennis, although only occasionally, and that I love watching tennis games live.

The last item will be a picture of my pets. I have four cats and two dogs back home, and I have lived with pets since I was very young. I am very attached to the animal rights cause and have volunteered in an animal shelter for a couple of years. Also,  I miss my cats and dogs very much !


I hope that these choices make sense to you !

See you all in class,

Maria

A little introduction

Hi Everyone !

So, my name is Maria and I am an exchange student at UT for one year. I lived all my life in France but my parents are German and Romanian.

I am truly looking forward to this class and to follow one of the projects that are proposed to us (I can't decide which one I will pick!). I have never done such a project before, though local development interests me a lot and that I have always wanted to do something like that ! I have been a human rights activist for the last few years and one of the important things I learned was that poverty and social disadvantages in general are not a fact per se, they are not something that has to exist in order for the society and the economy to work. They are not a necessity and they enter into the framework of human rights violations. 

I am very pleased to being given the chance to work on a concrete situation and I hope that I will learn a lot and that I will acquire some knowledge that I could implement on other projects when I get back home.

See you all on monday!

Maria