Holy cow! My first year of university (save for exams and those 2 days of classes) has come to a close! And what better way to end it than to ruminate on the UBC Coordinated Arts Program Conference held yesterday?

So yesterday I arrived at the CAP room with my computer awaiting where I would set up my showcase presentation about Vine as an economic platform and tool for problematic cultural dissemination. Yeah. Admittedly, I was worried no on was going to show up, or be able to hear the videos I was sharing. Well, no one heard the videos, but so many people wanted to hear what I had to say, and that makes it all worth it. I didn’t have the opportunity to scope out many of the other showcases, but I saw posters and videos and art pieces galore. It made me nostalgic for my seventh grade science fair, but with more abstractions. Anyways, I was ecstatic that so many of my fellow Global Citizens and beyond appreciated what I had to say, it meant a lot to me.

Now the panels were quite impressive. I attended Panel A, Race and Globalization, which pertained to social stigmas and large-scale situations of inequity. It was a privilege to witness the research and contributions to the scholarly fields of humanitarian aid, sex work and exoticism done by students, and how they transitioned from paper to powerpoint. And this isn’t just because he’s in my stream, but Colin Kulstad’s “Critical Analysis of English as a ‘Global Language’ with an Emphasis on Post-Secondary Institutions,” on the global adoption of English as a necessary skill for improvement instigated many a critical thought for me, especially considering the implications of presenting such a paper in English, to an English-speaking audience at an English-dominant university, in British Columbia (I have paraphrased how Colin himself explained this irony at the end of his paper).

And despite the fact that this is a blog post under very similar circumstances, the fact that non-English academia, art, science and the like should be valued any less than these anglophone fields. I’ve studied Spanish since I was five years old, and time and time again have I been so grateful, in social, work or school situations, where Spanish not only bridges me to other communities, but the wealth of their culture, society, individuals. Coming from the United States, it is not uncommon for (mostly) white Americans to not speak another language besides English, and to live without any negative speculation about that. Why should the reverse be any different? By disseminating English this way, are we broadening horizons or limiting modes of knowledge and understanding? Hmm.

Admittedly I played audience almost exclusively to the Global Citizens, but only because I knew I’d have a good time. CAP was the best decision I ever made at 7am in the middle of July (remember registration? Yikes.), and if there was a CAP foe second year, you can bet I’d be poised and ready to pick out my timetable.