English 2100: Identity and Representation

The essential question I was trying to answer in my analytical research paper is “Do we need more women entrepreneurs?” I responded to this question by analyzing the barriers and strategies implemented to help women entrepreneurs starting their business. From my research, it was found that women entrepreneurs help our economy by adding more jobs and increasing our overall global income. Additionally, they help break gender stereotype in our community by allowing women to explore career paths outside of their traditional roles. However, the biggest problem that continues to hinder woman’s success is their lack of confidence, a small network of people, and access to finance. With the additional programs and mentorships out there, women entrepreneurs are opened up to more opportunities and capable of starting their businesses.

For my creative remix, I decided to make an Instagram page that will inspire and motivate potential women entrepreneurs and present women entrepreneurs. In the page, you will find inspirational quotes, articles that I thought were interesting, and success stories from other women entrepreneurs. I want to empower women’s mindset by showing them that we are just as capable as playing on the same field as men, but we need first to build our society of women entrepreneurs first. I advertise potential programs and meetups out there that women entrepreneurs can attend to advance their network and businesses. In many of the post, I used my voice to speak out to the women entrepreneurs reading on the page. I hope the little nudge that this page gives helps women believe in themselves.

From my research, I was glad to see how far women have come throughout the years, especially in the business market. These women need a small push to know that they can do it. I wanted to creative remix to complement my paper by creating a device that can give women entrepreneurs this push. There are many different ways we can try to advocate for a problem, and this was an excellent first step for us to be a voice for our topic.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/womenentrepreneursofthefuture/?hl=en

For my research paper, after spending too much deciding what my topic should be, I finally decided to write about SATs for college admissions. Considering that alot of colleges have now chosen to go test optional for their admissions, it sounded interesting to find out why exactly did they do so.In the creative remix, I made a news report to talk about why these colleges have gone test optional, and what students should do, considering the unfairness of the SATs.  During my research paper, I analyzed the various ways in which socioeconomic status of a person and race can create a gap in the SAT score.Several researches which have explored these factors previously, mentioned that reasons such as parents’ education and income level, the racial background of a child, the upbringing, etc contribue to the gap that exists. A study from the harvard education review found that the SAT and the ACT have biases that negatively affect people of color and lower socio-economic status and therefore a lot of students who think that their SAT scores is not the best reflection of who they are, they have the choice to provide colleges with other requirements to show their capabilities. Yet at the same time, students who feel they were not at their best during the four years of high-schools due to any reason and they score relatively well in the SATs, they would want their SAT scores to be taken into consideration.
For the creative remix, I created a news report to explain how based on those factors, colleges are now going optional with the SATs. At the same time, I also mentioned colleges who still take into consideration, the SAT scores. I posted interviews of 2 college admission directors. These interviews were taken from another source at youtube.
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQu76UuZLj8&t=72s
During the process, it was interesting to learn the basics behind a news report and how people make it. I used a variety of softwares to make the video, and it was basically based on the idea of what colleges think about the SATs. For the topic, I was surprised as to how much of a difference the SATs can make based on what class you belong to. The most important thing that needs to be considered is that students from all over the world are required to give SATs for admission to some colleges, which is unfair to many students, because not every student is getting the same facilities for preparing for these tests. There should be changes in the admission process where SAT is still compulsory, to make it fair for more students, and to allow more students to apply.

P.S. For some reason, the blog is not letting me post the video I made.

My goal in my creative remix project was to inform the class about affirmative action policies in education, through an interactive, fun, medium. However, I also wanted the class to participate, so I thought of the idea of political cartoons. In my high school, one of my professors constantly used them and they made the class very engaged. Also, each student can have their own subjective take on the cartoon, since political cartoons typically have more than one meaning or one aspect to them. This helped my presentation because I was able to see the students perspective on the cartoons and connect it to the research I have done on my topic. For example, Gouri brought up a great point that the way somebody was brought up and outside influences have a great factor on the amount of effort and focus they can put into education. This directly tied into my evidence, since a major claim of mine was that minorities were historically excluded and underrepresented throughout the history of colleges, so affirmative action policies work to reverse this and promote equality.The most interesting idea I found through the two projects was the topics of legacy admissions, state quotas, and admissions based on athletic ability. Instead of blaming the policy of affirmative action, which is trying to achieve diversity and equality, people need to put less blame on minorities and focus on the other loopholes that are present in higher institutions. Some of my political cartoons dealt with this issue and the class did a good job dissecting them.

   The most difficult part of the project was attempting to find evidence, since a lot of it was contradictory. There have been a wide array of studies done on the policy of affirmative action, but many of the studies had different results, which were completely opposite to eachother. As a result, I had to investigate each source and determine which source had less bias and was more reliable. An interesting thing I learned about school admissions through my research of affirmative action is the presence of an increased test score for legacy students, minority students, and athletic students. I found that these students get special treatment when it comes to college admissions, through an increased SAT score. When viewing the scores of minority and legacy students, a school treats these students like they received an SAT score that is larger than their actual one. Overall, I feel that the project went well and the creative remixes gave the students a condensed, efficient look at other students research topics.

pdf joann wu

The research question I presented was how does Youtubers affect the mental health of their viewers. It was really hard to actually create a presentation about the topic, because I didn’t know how to portray the feelings of the viewers. After brainstorming, I ended up creating a short story with a comic strip that accompanied it. In my paper I talked about 3 main stream Youtubers, and how their followers are connected to the creators in an unhealthy manner. Many create this connection to the creators as if they know them in real life. This obsession is unhealthy especially to those who are already unstable mentally. This because the attachment causes them to rely and believe in all of the things the creators say, so when the creator say to feel anxious or have mental issue is valid, the viewers would believe them and be comforted by their words. However, when the creators states or mocks at someone who seems to have a mental instability, the viewers would feel attacked and goes into the stage of denial. Keeping this in mind, I decided to add 2 Youtubers into the comic strip to give a short, but straightforward idea of how creators affect the viewers’ mental health. The story is about a girl named Lisa who suffers from social anxiety, and uses Youtube as an outlet to relieve some of her anxiety. She encounters many nice and comforting creators on the web, who has similar experiences, and was able to talk about their feelings about their anxiety. However, there’s always 2 sides of a story. Some creators out there are insensible to their viewers’ mental health and post anything they desire without giving it much thought. As a result, Lisa creates this self doubt and has a mental breakdown. A story and a comic strip was the best way to present my project, because it gives the audience a visual idea of what could happen on the other side of Youtube.

Brainstorming ideas and having a topic to research on is never easy. Researching on a topic about Youtube was definitely hard, since there’s a lot of biases around certain Youtubers and the platform itself. It’s also really tricky to understand if the source that I’m reading is objective and is not siding to one of situation; however, with the continuous process of reading different sources, I was able to figure out which sources were better to cite. I was able to learn about Youtube and the impact the creators, normal people are able to make due to their popularity. From this experience, I was able to brainstorm the different ways of presenting. Before it was always power point slides and me talking from the power point, but this experience allowed me to step away from that and create something more creative. These two processes were difficult and time consuming, but it was worth the hard work since I was able to learn so much along the way.

Enjoy these six-word memoirs, crafted by you and your classmates!!

Stressful subway studying sessions: Need coffee.

Chicken, chicken, and some more chicken.

So sleepy, subway’s my second bed.

Connect to connect to connect again.

Things became more clear to me.

Commute: hectic melting pot of opportunity.

“Are you getting Starbucks or nah?”

Much easier than what I expected.

What is sleep? Just a dream.

Twenty piece nuggets only five dollars.

An Achiever Always Aims At A’s.

Healthy Diet: High Protein, Low Carbs.

Thursdays are for the boys. YURR.

No time, finals, deadlines, sleepless  Help!

The non-stop commotion of four months.

School at eight, ptsd at five.

Eat apples then go to sleep.

Freedom is now sold in prison.

Pain is temporary, GPA is forever.

For your fourth and final project of the semester, you will be finding a creative way to re-visit and re-present the topic you explored in your Analytical Research Paper. Though I called this a “Digital Re-Mix” on our syllabus, some of you may end up finding non-digital ways to present your material. The most important aspects of this project are that it showcase your creativity and complement your research project.

Some possible forms your re-mix might take are as follows:

Blog
Video
Audio Essay
Photo Essay
Music
Dramatic Performance
Interviews
Comic/Cartoon
Visual Art
Game (Board or Video)
Culinary Presentation

Please do NOT simply recreate your research in a Powerpoint-style presentation!!!!

You will be presenting your work in class on Monday, December 10th and Wednesday, December 12th. You will have 5-7 minutes to present your project. If you create something that will take longer than that for us to experience, please provide a link or post it here on the class blog, so that we can all enjoy it fully before your presentation, then select a sample to share during your presentation.

In addition to the in-person presentation, please post a brief (400-500 words) Artist’s Statement about your presentation on the Course Blog. This statement should explain what you were trying to achieve through this Creative Re-Mix, how your Creative Re-Mix connects to your Analytical Research Paper, and what you learned through the process of these two projects.

Artists’ Statements should be posted to the Course Blog no later than 5 pm on Wednesday, December 12th.

Come to class on Monday, December 3rd prepared to share your idea for your Creative Re-Mix!

Reading the proposals you submitted on Monday suggested to me that many of you either chose to disregard the requirement that your topic be connected to our course theme, Identity and Representation, or simply don’t understand what those terms mean.  As a result of this, many of you still need to choose an appropriate topic and craft a meaningful research question.  To help you with your thinking, I am providing a list of 20 ideas that may get your creative juices flowing and help you choose a topic that is meaningful to you, engaging to research, and ripe for analysis.  These are not fleshed-out topics, just ideas of directions that might prove fruitful:

1. internalized prejudice/ self-hate
2. sexualization of young girls in media
3. voter suppression and discrimination
4. schools to prisons pipeline
5. analysis of a particular movie/tv show/book and its representation of a particular ethnic/racial/national group.
6. homelessness in NYC
7. children growing up in shelters or in foster care
8. migrant “caravan”
9. Native American identity/ life on reservations today
10. body image (and a particular group)
11. K-Pop – exporting Korean culture?
12. Something about food and identity
13. Tattoos/ Body Modification and identity
14. Plastic Surgery and Race/Gender/Ethnicity
15. Beauty standards in U.S.
16. White Nationalism
17. Bilingualism in Education
18. Gender fluidity
19. “Me Too” movement
20. Young people and political activism

Please be aware that research papers that do not fit within the parameters I’ve described, both in class and in the written prompt that was distributed, will not receive passing grades.

Article Link https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/donald-trumps-birthright-citizenship.html

Those born in the United States even though their parents are not are guaranteed Citizenship rights. Donald Trump however is changing that. I disagree with Donald Trump in changing this basic human right of receiving citizenship because it violates the 14th amendment. In recent issues about terrorism, bomb threats, and crime by “illegal immigrants”, Donald Trump has demanded to revoke the 14th amendment using his executive power (executive order). On board with his anti-immigrant policies, it seems that he wants to distance himself with the rest of the world, and put America first.

We are the only country for 85 years that allow people to gain Citizenship just by being here. The 14th amendment protects these people from being “illegal” by birth, and it is outright injustice to revoke an amendment that protects such basic human rights. After all, the founding fathers became citizens on a foreign land that they took over and ravaged from natives, and subjugated those same people. It is important we look at the severance of the constitution, as it is the binding roots of basic human rights; an executive order from the POTUS to remove one of these amendments sounds outright cynical and stupid. No matter my political belief, it is important that we put aside our beliefs as democrats and republicans or far left and far right to fight injustices to human rights. This is one of them.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national who was a journalist working with the U.S. Press, was killed at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on 2nd October. This article is giving information about how Saudi Arabia is being suspected for his death since Khashoggi was a famous critic of the Saudi monarch and his law policies. His death has been a crucial news for the past month as more and more information is being found about it. The article is discussing how the alleged murder of the journalist is affecting Saudia Arabia’s relations with other nations such as the U.S. which is facing public outcry after the incident.

This news is significant to me as it speaks volumes about the safety of journalists around the world. Journalists make people aware of what is going on in the world and play a vital role in our daily lives. The influence of media is significant in today’s world as media is a primary source of knowledge for many. One will have a hard time knowing the issues in the world if one does not have access to media. Hence the safety of journalists is an important issue as their duty requires them to risk their lives and find out information which is necessary for the world to know. More and more journalists are meeting tragic ends for exercising their freedom of speech in order to make us more aware. It is extremely important to provide necessary protection to controversial journalists who are fulfilling their duties as responsible citizens of the world.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-khashoggi-turkey/saudi-prosecutor-discusses-khashoggi-case-with-turkish-intelligence-demiroren-agency-idUSKCN1N50PO

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/business/ibm-red-hat-cloud-computing.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ftechnology&action=click&contentCollection=technology&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront

IBM is an information technology company that operates in 177 countries around the world. They have recently entered the field of cloud computing which is when you access information from an external database. An example of this is when we use Gmail. Gmail isn’t run on our computers but instead the data is grabbed from Google’s servers. This is one of the reasons Gmail is a lot faster to pull up compared to other email websites that don’t use cloud computing such as Yahoo. Cloud computing makes it so that our computers have to do less with the data being stored outside the individual computer and programs being shared. This is very useful to share information fast with everything being on a single platform. This however isn’t the case as the leading cloud computing companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon each have their separate cloud and data transfer between clouds is difficult. IBM in it’s acquisition of Red Hat is hoping to be able to compete with these giants in this field. They hope to make allow people to have the ability to make their own cloud for their personal use and access to a public cloud. The combination of these companies hopefully brings a new era of cloud computing.