Anti-Racist Citation Practices

In “Making Our Future Through Anti-Racist Citation Networks” Andre Habet brings up a lot of good points about the racist citation practices that we are all, myself included, guilty of. However, I do not agree with his methods of doing this. Just looking up a picture of someone is not going to give you an accurate idea of the biases they possess. While it is cliche, looks can be deceiving. Just because someone does not look like a POC, does not mean they are not. That being said, I also cannot think of a better way to do this.

Habet’s point about citations reinforcing the white oppressive framework in academia is so hard to break. For thousands of years, the works of white men have been ranked superior to the works of anyone else, whether the content was better or not. That leads to white men being the most easily accessible academic writings. Which then reinforces this idea that only white men exist in writing. To find other sources, you have to dig deep, and seek them out. Many people do not want to do this, simply because it takes too much work.

I think that once enough we start to dig deeper for sources written by POC/LGBT people, it becomes easier for future generations. By bringing the work of these people to the surface, and putting them into a citation network, suddenly their names are being circulated, and cited by others. Eventually, we could see an equal distribution of academic writing across demographics. However, this cannot happen until we all look at our citation practices, and change them to reflect this need for change.

I know that I am guilty of just using the first source I find regardless of who wrote it, but who wrote it matters. Their biases are important. Knowing why they wrote what they wrote is important. I wish that there was a better method to uncover the biases and demographics of an author. But for now, Habet’s method is the only one I can think of, despite the possible flaws.

Qualitative Research

In the first chapter of Bonnie S. Brennan’s, book on qualitative research, she poses some questions that one should consider to understand their philosophy on research. I will answer some of these questions to the best of my ability.

• What does objectivity mean to you?
  • To me, objectivity means that something is a set in stone fact. There is no way debate about whether this idea, or concept is correct. Objectivity is hard to achieve and harder to define.
• What is neutrality
  • Neutrality is not taking a side. In terms of research, neutrality would be putting equal weight into discovering if your hypothesis is correct or incorrect. Neutrality is hard to achieve because we always have an outcome that we would like to happen. It is easy to let the hope for a specific outcome cloud our research and cause us to not do justice to the subject matter. Another part of neutrality is bias. While we are all bias, to be neutral, I believe you have to check your biases, and know how they might make you lean.
• Do you believe that truth is relative?
  • I think that truth is relative-ish. While I do not believe in capitol T truth, I also do not believe that everyone’s individual truths are true. So, I think that everyone has their own truth, and in some cases those truths are valid. In other cases, I find them invalid. For instance, how I respond emotionally to being yelled at, might be different than someone else. So, my truth would be that yelling is a scary thing, while their truth is that yelling is a motivational tool. I do not think that two people can look at the sky and say it is two completely different colors. There are some situations where truth is relative, and some situations where not all truths are created equal.
• Are there cause-and-effect relationships that can determine people’s behavior?
  • In some cases yes, in some cases no. When looking at how people act and react to certain things, it is not easy to put a blanket statement over what caused their behavior. While the cause-and-effect relationship does explain some behavior, there are times when it is impossible to know why someone acts a certain way.

These questions, while they seem irrelevant to research, do provide a framework for how you stand philosophically, which will effect your research. When doing research, knowing if you believe in a concrete truth, or neutrality can shape the ways that you go about researching, and how you explain the research to others.

Queer Methods

Brim, Matt, and Amin Ghaziani. “Introduction: queer methods.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 44.3 (2016): 14-27.

This introduction brings to light many ideas surrounding queer methods, and what it does. One of the most interesting parts is when they queer methods to being a method while also acting as a sort of foil to method. Queer methods are meant to question the status quo, and push methods beyond their boundaries.

Empiricism is highly regarded in our society. We want to have observable evidence to ensure that what we are saying is right. However, as stated by the authors of this introduction, observable behavior does not always work with people in the queer community. They use the example of homosexuality, which could be defined as having an attraction to members of the same gender. However, to test this you would need to know that this person has had sex with someone of the same gender, otherwise how can you prove their homosexuality. But also, just because someone has sexual relations with a member of the same gender does not mean they identify as homosexual. The authors go on to drive this point home, but I think the point is clear. Empiricism in the queer community is hard to come by, and hard to use ethically.

One actual queer method is the act of de-tethering. As described by the authors, researchers with tether their research to strict guidelines for research subjects (white male in early 20’s for example). However, queer (and all minority methods) methods have begone to embrace the methodology of not strictly defining or isolating their objective in research.

Prism

Prism is a website that allows you to upload a written piece, and put “facets” on the work. There are three spaces for facets, and they are just broad terms to describe the piece you have entered. In the example for the demo, they used “feminist” and “conformist.” Once submitted people can read what you posted, and highlight the words or phrases that fall under the facet you chose. So, if someone read the article from the demo and thought the words “female empowerment” reminded them of feminist then they could highlight that phrase in whatever facet color feminist is.

As more people weigh in on your article, the words that fall under the facets will become bigger, and be color coordinated with the facet. So, if a lot of people found “female empowerment” to be feminist then that phrase would be bigger than the rest of the article.

Prism would be useful if you are trying to make an argument but you are not sure which words are the most important, and should be quoted. By running it through prism, you could see what other people think about the section of an article you are looking at. This could give you ideas as to what words you would want to quote.

Coming to Terms with Terms

Joe Harris puts into words a lot of things that I have been told vaguely about in the last two years of college. The three words he defines (project, keywords, and uses and limits) and the way he defines them are useful for any type of research paper.

He defines the project as the aims, methods and materials an author uses to convey their point. So, basically, asking, “Why are are they doing this,” “What are they using to do this,” and “How are they doing this?” This is much more broad then looking at the thesis statement of a paper. This definition of a project opens it up to the sources that are being used, how the author is incorporating those sources, and why they chose these sources.

For keywords he talked a lot about quotations. I personally have had a lot of trouble learning how to incorporate quotations into my papers. Harris puts an emphasis on choosing words from the text that are especially important. By paraphrasing the project, and using keywords, you are able to give a broad overview, while still keeping the integrity of the author’s argument.

Uses and limits was a new one for me, but I like the way he explained it. He defines uses and limits as seeing how the work is useful while also recognizing the limitations of the work. So, he takes the work of the dichotomy of good or bad. This allows you to look critique shortfalls the work, but also to discuss the successful parts of the work.

Is Music Therapy Legitimate?

As a musician, and a psychology major, I truly believe that music has healing powers that we might not be able to explain. I have seen the most nonverbal children open up when they hear a song they love, or they know the words to a certain song. However, just because we cannot explain this right now, does not mean that we should not be trying to explain what gives music this power.

While I wish that I could start there, I know that I cannot, because it is my preconceived notion that music has any effect on people. Which is why I found a review of music therapy studies (Music Therapy For Autistic Spectrum Disorder). I was worried going in that I would be proven wrong, and that music would have no effect on people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The review looked at multiple studies done in the past, they looked at the heterogeneity of the studies, the assessing bias, sensitivity analysis, etc., to decide upon the validity of music therapy. There were two people reviewing each study.

The results showed that there was a positive effect on communicative abilities of people with ASD that went through weekly music therapy sessions when compared to placebo therapy. An interesting point that is brought up by the authors is that music therapy helped nonverbal children to communicate better in nonverbal ways. It could be because these are easier to detect in nonverbal children.

The big take away from this article is that more heterogeneous studies need to be done to determine the full value of music therapy. However, there are advantages to music therapy for children with ASD.

 

Technology as Rhetoric

In Declaration by Design… Richard Buchanan is making an argument that technologists are using design, and esthetics of technology to persuade people. While he does bring this into a deeper conclusion than my short summary, I fee like this is generally agreed upon. I know that I for one agree. You can have the greatest technology/idea in the world, but if it isn’t interesting or if it doesn’t look cool then no ones going to buy it.

Design and rhetoric are probably the most important piece to understanding the human condition. People have to be convinced to do things, and to buy things, and to believe things. If you throw on a shiny tag line, or an overall interesting design they are much more likely to join your side.

Buchanan also brings up a few design arguments that are very interesting to think about. One in particular is: the idea of a designer as a speaker who fashions a world, however small or large, and invites other to share in it. I like this, because I believe this is true of any art form. Authors, composers, designers all create a little (or big) world, they create the backdrop, the emotions you feel while in this world, the protagonist, the overall theme. They truly create a world, sometimes from scratch, and use it to make their audience feel a certain way.

I believe that a good designer would create a world based off of their design. Whether from scratch or with pieces from out own, they have to create a world that people can live in and use that persuade their audience.

The Congo Vs The World

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has had a long, and difficult history. Between civil wars, rigged elections, and the absence of a constitution; they are struggling. One thing they do have is an abundance of  natural resources. But, without a functioning government, they can’t control what happens to those natural resources. Economic powerhouses, such as the Chinese, have taken advantage of this and are draining the Congo of their resources.

In the article, The Cobalt Pipeline, very nicely explains exactly how the Congolese people are getting abused. The explanation of the cobalt mines, and the pipeline from the Congo to China to our technology. The article also expertly uses pathos to convince people to care about this topic. Telling the story of miner along with their picture helps to create a bond between the reader and the miner.

I’m sure you’re wondering why you should care about this, and how this effects you in the slightest. Well, the cobalt extracted from mines in the Congo under hazardous conditions are used to make your phones and laptops run. Companies like Apple and Samsung hide under the guise of ignorance, and say that they have no knowledge of their materials coming from hazardous mines. I think we can all agree that either of these companies could figure out where their materials are coming from if they truly wanted to. However, they are not going to care until their customers make them care.

 

Capstone: Who is she?

The short answer is, I don’t know.

I’m going to completely honest, I still understand exactly what a Capstone is. I have done some research, but I’m still completely lost. I’m not sure if it’s as general as I think it is, and as a music major there are not many Capstones relating to my major. I know for sure that I need to go and talk to my advisor about this. She has some music background, so she might be able to hash out some of my ideas.

I have a good example of what my capstone could be. Uncommon Action: An Interdisciplinary Arts Performance on Ally Involvement by Rachel Dentiger. This Capstone is combination of instrumental and dance performance, where each instrument is a character in the story. There is a bully, a victim, and a few bystanders (one who is the “ally” for the victim). She commissioned the piece from a friend, and had a different friend do the choreography. She had a reduced orchestration, and held auditions for the parts. The coolest part was that she made a special harness for a cello to be able to dance around stage, which was not easy in the slightest. She was granted $4,500 from the Crown Program.

In the process of my capstone you can say that I am still at the starting line. I have a few ideas, that I’ll list here, but I’m not at all sure how to combine my two majors to create something cohesive.

One idea I have is having a benefit concert for the camp I worked at. This is one of my only ideas right now that incorporates both of my majors. The music degree is obviously shown through the concert aspect. As for my psychology degree, I have seen first hand how camp, particularly the camp I worked at, can help kids psychologically. Being surrounded by people who care for you, and want to help you become the best person you can be.

Another idea involves arranging a piece of classic literature, such as Fur Elise, for percussion ensemble. With this I would hi light the fact that percussionists don’t often get the chance to play literature from these time periods. The difficult part about this would be arranging a famous symphony to different instruments, but keeping composer’s vision the same.

In terms of funding, I can get up to $5000 for my Capstone. From the examples I looked at, I have to convince them that my project is worth more than other projects. Not exactly sure how I’ll do that, or if my project will really need that much money. I know that I will go to the funding seminar that they offer, because I have no clue what I’m doing.

There does not appear to be any specifics for either of my major, but I do need to find out if I have to combine my majors for the Capstone, or if they want me to choose one to focus on.

 

The Effects of Perfectionism

In the article You Aren’t Lazy— You’re Terrified, Jenni Berrett discusses how perfectionism has hurt her productivity, and how it keeps her from doing work. At first while reading this, I did not identify with her point at all, it just did not resonate with me. Until I thought about how I was procrastinating last year.

I was working on getting my transfer papers ready, and trying to prepare an audition, all while taking 19 credits. I was stressed beyond belief, but I was not doing anything about it. When I went to my philosophy professor to ask for a letter of recommendation, he asked how I was. I gave him the typical “I’m fine,” answer, but he reiterated the question. I was not sure what to say. He looked at me and said “David you haven’t stopped fidgeting since you got in here, and you look exhausted.” Again I was speechless. He went on to say, “I have found that anxiety thrives when we are inactive. To expel this anxiety, you need to take action, and do what you’re anxious about.”

I was shocked, and a little skeptical, but I took his advice, and it helped me immensely. I think about that advice all the time when I am feeling anxious about an assignment or a paper or a concert. If I simply sit here and worry, nothing will change, but if I do something about  my anxiety, I can tackle it head on.

Berrett’s point is very similar, she suggests that it takes more effort to not do the thing that makes you anxious, than to just sit down and do it. I completely agree with her, not only does it take less effort, you (at least I) feel so much better after I’ve done the stressful thing.