Hey bloggers! It has been a busy couple of weeks starting our first year in university. I just moved to the beautiful, rainy city of Vancouver, British Columbia from my sunny home in Northern California. I am a part of the Coordinated Arts Program here at UBC and we have recently been introduced to what it means to be a part of such a global and expanding world. Our professors assisted us in tying together multiple disciplines under the umbrella topic of global citizenship. Many students this week focused on this topic, and others zoomed in on a specific academic article by Farhat Shahzad read and discussed in our ASTU course called, “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning.”
Clara Chang opened with the introduction of Shahzad’s article and presented the topic of multiculturalism used as an example of an interpretive community (a group in one’s life that assists them in the process of remembering and learning). Many interpret multiculturalism in the classroom to be beneficial to all, but Clara digs deeper into this topic to discuss how it could hurt the members of this global environment. She touches on the fact that children may be exposed to topics that contradict the religion and values they are introduced to at home and the possibility of disagreement if the members of the community are not coming from a homogeneous background. Clara strongly closes with the thought that we must keep these discussion topics open, rather than allowing fear to dictate the conversation.
Mia Spare took a different angle on Shahzad’s article by introducing the idea that different past experiences will expand one another’s boundaries and views on the world around them. She also touched on Shahzad’s theory that family, friends, and peers can assist one in interpreting the data presented to them in textbooks or the media, and that this can narrow down an individual’s perspective. Mia discusses her realization that many of her own views have been a result of an interpretive community, and gives the example of her grandfather shaping a personal, subjective view of the Vietnam War. She concludes with the fact that various interpretive communities and technologies of memory she has encountered throughout her life will forever affect her personal perspectives regarding numerous topics.
Ryan Bednar analyzes the topic of globalization from a personal standpoint as he believes his citizenship does not parallel that of his ethnicity. He discusses the idea that nationality is becoming more irrelevant as globalization is increasing. The topic of North American culture being defined by immigrants is of importance because of increasing fluidity in travel among nations, thus allowing for other continents to shape their modern culture as North America always has. Ryan feels as though we are losing our roots, for the question of ethnicity will develop into one of citizenship. He believes that this a topic relatable to many students at UBC and sees idea of diminishing ethnicity to continue for generations to come.
Inneke Soeyanto discusses the broad topic of what it means to be a part of the Global Citizen CAP stream. She personally defines global citizenship as having the responsibility and understanding of what is happening around the world from both a global and local perspective. From a sociological standpoint, global citizenship can interpreted as one who takes local social issues and applies them to a more global spectrum in an attempt to provide explanations to these issues. This idea can be applied to a political standpoint as well, but it must also be realized that politics is about the varying ways order in society can occur. To conclude, Inneke discusses the English relevance of global citizenship to come from formulating analysis and solutions to global problems and perspectives.
It must be noted how Shahzad’s article can be applicable to the ongoing discussion of global citizenship. Those who characterize themselves as a citizen of the world have different interpretive communities than those who accept belonging to only one nation. We, as global citizens, provide a more worldly and open-minded perspective to issues concerning sociology, political science, and English. We must embrace the world as it is now and prepare ourselves to create a better tomorrow.
Signing off! See you all soon! -Erin Livinghouse