Academic

Last week, I attended an Academic workshop, which was an international conference. At the workshop, students from multiple different schools presented their research papers. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that it was appropriate to take a photo of this workshop, but I did learn a lot. At this conference, there was a student who discussed the transformation of Soho from an artist site to a tourist site. Soho is even referred to as a “Tourist packed area.” They viewed tourists’ cliché or people that ruin the city. The tourists were viewed as intruders, who ultimately defeated the purpose of Soho and its creation. There are three phases of Soho history; they are the formation or the artist community, gentrification and commercialization. Tourists lost site of our history and our past and turned Soho around completely. In order to conduct her research, she used primary sources, such as interviews with artist or tour guide accounts from the New York Times. She placed most of these primary sources in her presentation so it was very clear to her audience that her sources were credible. It was very easy for us to follow along and relate to her research topic. Through her extent research paper, I learned a lot about her topic, but more importantly she inspired me to start thinking about my capstone or thesis paper from now. She helped me realize how to get started, conduct research, and finally, begin writing a paper. It was clear that it took her  a lot of time, but she did a great job. She showed me that writing a research isn’t impossible. I am happy I attending this workshop as a freshman because it allows me to get thinking at a young age. I will start to open my eyes to possible research topics. I hope my paper turns out as good as hers!