Today we spent most of the class discussing issues around the move towards a more robust conception of ‘Black Studies’, as a response to the transcript I made of Kemuel’s talk at the Black Student Network conference. The general discussion started with me explaining what I understood to be the speaker’s position and intention and then giving my own perspective that perhaps this is a return to Unity that is found in the naming of an Oppressor-Oppressed or White-Black dichotomy. Read more
This week I had prepared for class by having conducted two interviews and finishing the transcription process. I’d sent these to Comitas the night before and it seems that he only got to glance at them. Still not happy about talking about my project this week, but I felt that my project was taking form. It felt kind of ‘cheatsy’ to do as Comitas suggests: to just interweave the words of the two transcripts as a dialogue.
Yet, having started to do this (thinking it will only be a part of the project, I just keep dreaming) I’m realizing how much work it is from my end and that it needs to be done with a great awareness of the complexities.
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This week we spent most of the time discussing the papers and projects that people have been developing. The notes that I took were limited and the Q’s a noted show me pulling in the thoughts from outside of the course to bear on the conversation that is happening in this class.
It's been an intense week of reading and thinking academically. I'm in full swing, making connections between all of my studies and bringing them to bear on my reading of the Chris Emdin book #ForWhiteFolks. I met up with Christian Thompson, went to a couple of academic events at TC and NYU, read two whole books.
This week I became more pre-occupied during the class about how my project would take form as an ethnography, rather than a historical piece. Read more
[I made lots of notes this week. It was a good week. My ideas were free-flowing.]