Selected Unpublished Class Projects
Cross Cultural Approaches to Leadership (Spring 2019)
Final Paper: Who Tells Your Story? Washington, Miranda, and the Farewell Address
For Cross Cultural Approaches to Leadership, we were tasked with exploring a story from our culture or the leadership story of someone in our family. I explored the impact of the farewell adress and the mythologizing of particularly George Washington through the text of the address itself and through its presentation in Hamilton. As part of the presentation element of this paper, I raised the question of hero cults and American civil religion. What does it mean for our nation that we mythologize a particular group of people who are all of a particular identity group? I argue that this hero cult of the founders implies criteria for leadership that have very little to do with actual leadership qualities, namely race and gender.
For Cross Cultural Approaches to Leadership, we were tasked with exploring a story from our culture or the leadership story of someone in our family. I explored the impact of the farewell adress and the mythologizing of particularly George Washington through the text of the address itself and through its presentation in Hamilton. As part of the presentation element of this paper, I raised the question of hero cults and American civil religion. What does it mean for our nation that we mythologize a particular group of people who are all of a particular identity group? I argue that this hero cult of the founders implies criteria for leadership that have very little to do with actual leadership qualities, namely race and gender.
Public Programs (Spring 2019)
In support of the Smithsonian’s Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission traveling exhibition, developed and implemented a public education program at the Museum of Flight for Free First Thursday Evening event. The program reached a record number of 4,600 visitors. The program was a game, “Rover on Over,” which teaches kids ages 7+ about rover missions through collaborative role-playing. Players evaluate prompts from “mission control” as a group and execute a response based on the game master’s description of their environment and various encounters in order to understand how rovers explore new planets and to practice communication.
One of my roles on the team was project management, and as such I advocated for the game to be released with a Creative Commons license. You can see our full documentation and all of the character sheets in the file below.
One of my roles on the team was project management, and as such I advocated for the game to be released with a Creative Commons license. You can see our full documentation and all of the character sheets in the file below.
| rover_on_over_full_documentation.pdf |
Indigenous Art is Indigenous Knowledge (Winter 2019)
Final Paper: Marketing Indigenous Life Experience: The Politics of Hospitality Through the Exhibition History of Ruth Cuthand’s Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink
Begun in 2011 after hearing news coverage of the Attawapiskat First Nation housing and water crisis, Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink would be completed in 2016 after five years of work and in 2017 it would be purchased by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and put on display in their Canada150 exhibition: Every. Now. Then. Reframing Nationhood. The work would later be added to their permanent collection galleries as well. However, it would not be added in the same form. Based on the artist’s words describing the information contained in the installation and the application of formal, visual analysis techniques, this paper examines how the removal of an element changes the information and the message conveyed to a gallery-goer by the work. Furthermore, drawing on descriptions of the social role of beadwork in both the Plains Cree and Eastern Cree traditions--the first of which relates to Cuthand’s heritage and the second of which relates to the Attawapiskat First Nation which served as the original inspiration for the work--it is possible to deepen the results of the visual analysis to point to the crucial change in message. Ruth Cuthand’s Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink began in her conception as a work about housing and hospitality but morphs into a work about the Indigenous art economy and the willingness of gallery-goers to engage with Indigenous knowledge and life experience but only to the extent that they remain comfortable in their viewing role.
Begun in 2011 after hearing news coverage of the Attawapiskat First Nation housing and water crisis, Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink would be completed in 2016 after five years of work and in 2017 it would be purchased by the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and put on display in their Canada150 exhibition: Every. Now. Then. Reframing Nationhood. The work would later be added to their permanent collection galleries as well. However, it would not be added in the same form. Based on the artist’s words describing the information contained in the installation and the application of formal, visual analysis techniques, this paper examines how the removal of an element changes the information and the message conveyed to a gallery-goer by the work. Furthermore, drawing on descriptions of the social role of beadwork in both the Plains Cree and Eastern Cree traditions--the first of which relates to Cuthand’s heritage and the second of which relates to the Attawapiskat First Nation which served as the original inspiration for the work--it is possible to deepen the results of the visual analysis to point to the crucial change in message. Ruth Cuthand’s Don’t Breathe, Don’t Drink began in her conception as a work about housing and hospitality but morphs into a work about the Indigenous art economy and the willingness of gallery-goers to engage with Indigenous knowledge and life experience but only to the extent that they remain comfortable in their viewing role.
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These are three images of "Don't Breathe, Don't Drink." Click on any of them to read more about the piece on the artist's website.
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Intro to Digital Humanities (Fall 2018)
Final Project: By the Glass Final; By the Glass Proposal
For this class, we were assigned projoect groups at random and a core data set (the NYPL "What's on the Menu?" Collection). My group decided to submit proposals to each other to determine both the content of the final project and who would be the team leader. My proposal to investigate wine lists was selected, so I had the pleasure of being the team lead for the quarter. The original proposal and the final result are linked here.
For this class, we were assigned projoect groups at random and a core data set (the NYPL "What's on the Menu?" Collection). My group decided to submit proposals to each other to determine both the content of the final project and who would be the team leader. My proposal to investigate wine lists was selected, so I had the pleasure of being the team lead for the quarter. The original proposal and the final result are linked here.
Information Behavior (Winter 2018)
Final Paper: Is that Perception or Investigation?: Information Behavior and The Adventure Zone
“Can our heroes solve the greatest mystery of all? Love? Also Murder? Let’s find out in... The Adventure Zone!"The Adventure Zone is a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) adventure podcast that debuted in December of 2014. Grounded in the D&D Starter Set, the world of the first season (the “Balance Arc”) was based on the adventure The Lost Mine of Phandelver but quickly grew beyond the bounds of the prewritten kit. Over the course of the Balance Arc, Dungeon Master (DM) Griffin McElroy leads his two brothers (Justin and Travis McElroy who play Taako Taaco, a wizard, and Magnus Burnsides, a fighter/rogue) and his dad (Clint McElroy who plays Merle Highchurch, a cleric) through a series of adventures to find seven Grand Relics, one for each of the schools of magic, and, ultimately, save the multiverse. The stakes for seeking and sharing information are consequently, in this world, very high indeed. D&D is a fascinating lense through which to look at information behaviour because of the multiple cognitive levels on which the players and the DM operate. A good player separates what they know from what the character knows, lest they be accused of metagaming. Yet part of what makes the tabletop role playing experience so engaging and enjoyable is the phenomenon of cross talk: the out of character discussion that takes place over the table outside the world of the campaign. These multiple levels of engaging with the real world and the game world make the information behavior field complicated but fruitful. By conducting a case study of the Information Behaviour present in the Balance Arc of The Adventure Zone, I elucidate the ways members of a small world engage with people external to their world. Further, by engaging with Savolainen’s everyday life information seeking framework, I propose ways information professionals can navigate an encounter with members of a small world and begin to break down those barriers.
“Can our heroes solve the greatest mystery of all? Love? Also Murder? Let’s find out in... The Adventure Zone!"The Adventure Zone is a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) adventure podcast that debuted in December of 2014. Grounded in the D&D Starter Set, the world of the first season (the “Balance Arc”) was based on the adventure The Lost Mine of Phandelver but quickly grew beyond the bounds of the prewritten kit. Over the course of the Balance Arc, Dungeon Master (DM) Griffin McElroy leads his two brothers (Justin and Travis McElroy who play Taako Taaco, a wizard, and Magnus Burnsides, a fighter/rogue) and his dad (Clint McElroy who plays Merle Highchurch, a cleric) through a series of adventures to find seven Grand Relics, one for each of the schools of magic, and, ultimately, save the multiverse. The stakes for seeking and sharing information are consequently, in this world, very high indeed. D&D is a fascinating lense through which to look at information behaviour because of the multiple cognitive levels on which the players and the DM operate. A good player separates what they know from what the character knows, lest they be accused of metagaming. Yet part of what makes the tabletop role playing experience so engaging and enjoyable is the phenomenon of cross talk: the out of character discussion that takes place over the table outside the world of the campaign. These multiple levels of engaging with the real world and the game world make the information behavior field complicated but fruitful. By conducting a case study of the Information Behaviour present in the Balance Arc of The Adventure Zone, I elucidate the ways members of a small world engage with people external to their world. Further, by engaging with Savolainen’s everyday life information seeking framework, I propose ways information professionals can navigate an encounter with members of a small world and begin to break down those barriers.
Information Behavior (Winter 2018)
Final Presentation: DAR Information Behavior
For this project, I was paired with two of the law librarian students in the UW MLIS program, and we wanted to do something that combined my job as Government Publications Graduate Reference Assistant and their legal background. In partial fulfillment of that goal, we decided to leverage my connection to one of the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapters to research how members of the DAR find out information about joining and about their family patriots. This project gave us a foundation in genealogical research as well as in examining social media and word of mouth as sources of information.
For this project, I was paired with two of the law librarian students in the UW MLIS program, and we wanted to do something that combined my job as Government Publications Graduate Reference Assistant and their legal background. In partial fulfillment of that goal, we decided to leverage my connection to one of the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapters to research how members of the DAR find out information about joining and about their family patriots. This project gave us a foundation in genealogical research as well as in examining social media and word of mouth as sources of information.
Government Publications (Fall 2017)
Final Project: Annotated Bibliography for a patron on an Alaska panhandle tribal issue.
The shape of the project was to address a research need from a tribe member by presenting a bibliography of government and legal materials concerning their tribe and tribal lands in Alaska. Timber rights were of particular concern to our contact. My teammate and I began by searching congressional records for mentions of the group of people in question. Based on the hearings we found, we then moved to state level government documents and court records. For privacy reasons, I cannot share the final product here, but it was an excellent introduction to legal research, indigenous knowledge, and the ways in which marginalized and minoritized peoples are represented (or not) in government literature.
The shape of the project was to address a research need from a tribe member by presenting a bibliography of government and legal materials concerning their tribe and tribal lands in Alaska. Timber rights were of particular concern to our contact. My teammate and I began by searching congressional records for mentions of the group of people in question. Based on the hearings we found, we then moved to state level government documents and court records. For privacy reasons, I cannot share the final product here, but it was an excellent introduction to legal research, indigenous knowledge, and the ways in which marginalized and minoritized peoples are represented (or not) in government literature.
