Hello fellow bloggers and curious readers,

This week I’m the class blogger so it’s my responsibility to summarize and find connections in my classmates most recent blogs. The blogs this week drew some impressive connections and had very intellectual insights.

In class we recently read the graphic narrative “Persepolis” written by Marjane Satrapi, this book is a common theme amongst the blogs. We also recently read and analyzed Hilary Chute’s article, “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis” the connections that people drew from this article and Persepolis maintained a common theme in the blogs. The most prevalent theme, in regards to “Persepolis”, was the illustration style and the use of art as a literary tool. Joseph, Martin, Paolina, and Kennedy all tackled the topic of either black and white, or a different element brought into play through illustration.

In Paolina blog she discusses how the graphic novel genre opens up a wide variety of interpretations for the reader. She writes on the unique style that adds a new level to the story by illustrating what there are no words for. She discusses the levels of interpretation that are allowed when illustrations are brought into the story, asking the important question “How much influence does the genre of “graphic narrative“ have on our subconscious view and interpretation of narratives though its visual and discursive storytelling?” Paolina also discusses how pictures provide a foundation for a unique style of thought processing, comparing pictures to “soil” that we are able to build and grow from.

Joseph’s blog was distinct in that he did not dwell too extensively on Persepolis, instead he draws connections from the theme of black and white to other directions of thought. He wisely compares black and white to good and bad. Drawing the connection that we, as a society, always attempt to interpret situations as good or bad, black or white, and how these rigid mentalities can cripple us and cause deep anxiety. He discusses perfectionism and how it leads to thoughts of intense anxiety, realizing that if we always seek to reach an extreme end of the spectrum of black and white, we will become burdened with an unrealistic responsibility on ourselves that is both unlikely, and unattainable.

I found this train of thought both eye-opening and humbling. In these early stages of University, when everyone is trying to figure out exactly how much effort they should be putting into each aspect of life, it’s easy to get weighed down by self-inflicted expectations. The realization that there is no perfect can bring people back to the present and enable us to actively engage ourselves in all parts of the University experience.

Both Martin and Kennedy discuss the topic of violence through abstract illustrations in their blogs. Martin writes about how the use of black and white creates an abstraction to the violence in the book by denormalizing it. He talks about how putting violence in colour in comic books makes it seem like just a normal everyday occurrence. When you put the violence in black and white and use abstract drawing styles, however, it makes the violence seem unsettlingly surreal and otherworldly. Kennedy touches on this as well, saying that Satrapis graphic work provides a “wow factor” that would not otherwise have been portrayed without the use of images.

Olivea also brings up denormalization through graphic images. She draws a comparison between Persepolis and the pulitzer prize winning graphic novel “Maus” by Art Spiegelman. In Maus, Olivea tells us, the author uses cats and mice to replace Nazis and Jews in an effort to show how absurd and unfathomable violence was in the holocaust. The use of minimization in Maus and Persepolis is similar in that both graphic narratives use this art form to induce interpretation and emotion from the readers.

Clara manages to construct a blog about Persepolis that focuses primarily on culture, specifically “symbolic culture” and the role that it plays in Persepolis. She draws from her personal experience with symbolic cultural and how it is active in her life. She discusses how symbolic culture is prevalent all over the world, but the difference is in material culture, “The difference in “symbolic culture” between where I live (Canada, part of the “western” world) and the Islamic state in Iran manifests itself visibly by a difference in “material culture””. Clara brings up the parallels between material culture differences numerous times in her blog, recalling time in Persepolis when Marji would be disciplined or persecuted for her progressive beliefs and lifestyle

Reading all of the blogs this week I was struck by how lucky I am to be in a class with so many advanced, and progressively minded people. It is really impressive to see how fast and adeptly people pick up on themes in the book, and the connections that people make to either their personal lives, or the lives and experiences of others. What I drew from the weeks blogs was a pronounced feeling of respect and humbleness towards my classmates. The ability to ask questions and critique culture and society is such a powerful ability, the way that Joseph was able to question the massive topic of good and evil in a single blog post was very powerful. The way that Clara was able to draw relations from her personal life experiences to that of a war torn Iran is quite a feat. It is very easy to get comfortable living on the west coast of Canada in a wealthy city at a prestigious university amongst friends and teachers. But through this comfortable bubble we must remember how important it is to always question, to always draw parallels and to always be curious and critical.

Have a wonderful week everybody, I hope you all continue to enjoy the euphoric bliss of studying for mid-terms

Isaiah

Hello bloggers!

My turn as the class blogger has come around and I must say, the blogs I read this week were great!

I’m sure it is of no surprise to you that this week many people chose to write about Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. A reoccurring theme this week was the discussion of style in which Satrapi used in her graphic narrative.

In Paolina’s blog, she writes how she is beginning to see “Persepolis and comics in a whole new light” and personally, I agree with her.  I am no longer seeing comics as something just for children and I am growing an appreciation for the simplicity behind them. In fact, “graphic novels add a new dimension to the reading experience.” While Paolina writes how her view on comics has changed, Gabriel writes about how Satrapi reveals the normalization of violence. Satrapi not only shows us how normal violence is in her life at the time, but in society today. Similarly to Gabriel, Kate addresses how through the minimalist style of the drawings, it shows “trauma more effectively and horrifically than simply describing it with words or a more realistic image.” Due to the fact that it is from a child’s perspective, the drawings cannot always be realistic. A child cannot always comprehend how horrific some things really are and because of this, it allows the reader’s imagination to wander.

Unlike many others this week, Baris focuses more on the similarities of growing up in Iran (when Satrapi did) and present day Turkey. Even through Satrapi’s minimalist style in Persepolis it is difficult to imagine what hardships she experienced, but for me, it is even more difficult to imagine someone in our very own class has experienced something similar. Persepolis has helped me in realizing that although the things Satrapi has experienced may be extraordinary, she herself, is still and ordinary person and that until the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war she was just living her normal life like many of us.

Being able to read everyone’s thoughts and opinions of the book as well as their own experiences and connections was something I really enjoyed. I look forward to reading all of your future blogs, but before I go, I do have a few questions. What if Persepolis had been in colour? Would it have changed anything? Or what if Satrapi had decided not to have made it a graphic narrative at all? Would the underlining message be as intensified as it is?

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Hi readers!

This week I’m the class blogger and I just finished reading everyone’s blogs and they were all amazing! Good job you guys! haha!

So anyway, this week, almost everyone from my class posted about Persepolis and connects it to Hillary Chute’s article titled The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. I am not surprised because that is what our class has been discussing this whole week and it was a great discussion, I myself enjoyed it so much.

Like what Kennedy said in his blog, its amazing how Satrapi was able to manipulate her readers by using techniques to somehow send hidden messages to the readers and the more we read her book the more we know what message she is really trying to send us. I also agree that each pictures have somehow different meanings and emotions behind it.

A lot of people (Kennedy, Kate, Grace, Peter, and Magda) focused on a picture from page 52 where Satrapi drew a picture of a man being cut up to pieces. Like what Peter and Kate said, it is obvious that it is a picture or an imagination from a child’s point of view. A child would imagine something violent in an unrealistic way where the man’s body parts in the picture was chopped equally, tidily, no blood and there are hollows, just like in cartoons whereas in the real world, its far from what she has drawn. Magda also agrees that its is not what the real torture looks like, she added that the picture above are more accurate of what the torture was like.

Another thing people in my class (Martin, Sandra, and Joseph) are drawn to is the black and white technique Satrapi has used. Like what Sandra said, most of us probably think at first that Satrapi used only black and white for her book just to set the mood and have no important reasons behind it. After reading Chute’s article we all changed our mind. The reason why she used black and white backgrounds turned out to be very important. Like what Joseph and most of us agreed that the reason why she used black and white backgrounds is to depicts how violent it was in that era. Martin added that black and white is a lot more powerful to recall traumatic experience and for readers to understand trauma more than to use color backgrounds. Martin ends his argument by quoting from our fellow classmate, Isiah that black and white is more straight forward and honest.

Reading people’s ideas and perspectives of the book and the article is very interesting and I really enjoyed it, as much as I enjoyed writing this blog post this week! Before I’m out, I have a small question for you guys to discuss, If you were the author of your own story/memoir, what special techniques or style you guys would use so that people would be drawn deeper to your story/memoir?

-Inneke Soeyanto

Hey fellow bloggers, this week it is my turn to take on the role of one of the class bloggers!

I was pretty certain what the forecast of topics would look like for this week, as we recently unpacked Hillary Chute’s “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis”, as well as Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.  Indeed, it was a downpour of Persepolis with a chance of Hillary Chute, as every single person’s blog this week had something to say about Satrapi’s graphic narrative depicting her childhood in Iran, and a large majority connected it to Chute’s scholarly essay.

The biggest theme this week had to be the style in which Satrapi draws in that Chute discussed quite thoroughly in her essay, which just about everyone touched on in their blogs.  Alex rephrases one of Chute’s points, “because all of the illustrations are in black and white, a lot of the violence depicted in Satrapi’s work becomes abstract due to how colourfully destructive violence normally is in the media”.  Gabriel writes about the normalization of violence as well by quoting Therese that also wrote about this subject.  Therese puts it a little differently, saying that the simplistic drawing style allows the readers to focus more on what Satrapi is saying, therefore intensifying the content.  Satrapi is really sending a message in her book about the normalization of violence, as she is completely opposed to it, which I think is in part due to the fact that she has witnessed this kind of traumatic violence first hand.

Joseph talked about black and white as well, but really put an abstract spin on it.  The black and white used by Satrapi sparked in Joseph a lot of creative thinking, where black and white represented good and evil, truth and lies.  Two different people might see their own views as the truth, but the other’s view as wrong, so there is no real black and white, just the grey in between.  How Joseph connected it back to our class was by stating that the genre of testimony resides in this grey area.  I would highly recommend taking a look at his blog for a something quite different, and to get more detail on this subject.

Clara’s blog was another of the very few that strayed from Chute’s essay.  Clara takes a personal outlook on culture, as she has two dominant cultures in her family.  In this era of constantly increasing globalization, there will be a need to deal with other cultures that may conflict with your own.  It is within the tradition of Clara’s Korean side of the family to take their shoes off upon entering a house, showing respect and cleanliness for most furniture is at ground level in Korea; while her French side of the family don’t usually take their shoes off, as in French culture (just as in most European or Western) furniture is typically raised above the ground, and they would find it offensive, for example, if a party host asked them to remove their shoes.  “How can we reconcile cultural differences?” Clara asks.  Her family’s answer to this question is by compromising.  For instance, her French grandmother will bring an “inside” pair of shoes to wear while in the house, to respect both cultures within the family.  This relates back to Persepolis, as the Islamic fundamentalists find it wrong for Marji to be wearing Nike sneakers, and Michael Jackson pins.  The Islamic state imposes their views onto the Iranian population with no compromise, thus sparking much conflict.

In conclusion, it seems that most agree with the idea that the monochromatic tone of Satrapi’s Persepolis conveys trauma even stronger since people view violence as normal.  Paolina asks: “what would have happened if Persepolis was a colored book?”.  Or think about what Kate says: “Would more complex drawings display trauma in a more effective way than the simplistic line drawings?”.  What about if Persepolis was written as a novel, without any visual representation?  Would the message of the story be stronger or weaker?  And my last question for this post: how can we as diverse people, live together while still preserving our own traditions?  Let these questions provoke some thought, and please let me know what you think!

Blogging off (I’m trade-marking that),

Ryan.

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to start off by saying that the blogs I read this week were great!

An overwhelming majority of them either discussed, used as inspiration or commented on Persepolis: story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi. This graphic memoir is told from the perspective of Marji, a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Therefore I will be examining a few of the major themes that appear throughout several student’s blog’s relating to Persepolis. They are: how Persepolis is related to personal experiences, how Persepolis can make the War in Iran seem real and relatable, and how the comic book genre adds a whole new dimension to the events described in the book.

When reading a book, any book (not only Persepolis), readers can often find connections between themselves and what is being described in the book. I think there is something so important about these connections. They help you better understand the book as well as the events unfolding around you. Quite a large number of people (Isaiah, Olivea, Paolina, Therese, Martin, Gabriel, Melissa, Baris, Inneke) touched upon this idea of connections between themselves, the world right now and the events and characters in Persepolis in their blogs.

In her blog, Paolina, relates her mother’s volunteer work as a German teacher in a refugee shelter to Marji’s very personal account of everyday life. She explains that refugees in present day Europe, as well all the people affected by the events in Persepolis are real people that have fears, joys and life experiences. When a child Paolina‘s mother worked with said, “I have seen worse,”after bloodying both his knees, it makes you think twice about the effects war has on children. It makes you think about what Marji and all those other children in Iran went through.

Photo of the 4th panel, page 18, from Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Photo taken by me.

Both Martin and Baris relate Persepolis back to personal experiences. Martin, in his blog post, talks about his friend Sep and her mother’s experience growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. On an even more personal level, in his blog post, Baris describes his experience growing up in Turkey when protests broke out against the government. His description of how his mother went out to help the wounded, along with her concern for his life when he was out protesting is immensely touching. It echoes the relationship between Marji and her parents when she wanted to go out protesting and they feared for her safety (for example, see page of 16-17 from Persepolis). When Baris mentioned that he would see his mother and her partner come home in the evenings exhausted, that immediately made me think about the 4th panel on page 18 of Persepolis, where Marji asks her parents to play Monopoly and her mother replies, “Darling, we are tired.” (see photo). It is a powerful image. These experiences do not just happen to people far away, they can happen to us and to anyone. This image and this reality really hits close to home.

Another important idea to consider is how connections can be drawn between the everyday experiences of Marji as a child in Persepolis and the life of children outside of Iran. Olivea expresses her thoughts, in her blog, on what it means for a child to realize that their parents are human beings too. 

Image of bottom panels, page 52, from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Taken from Olivea’s blog post (http://blogs.ubc.ca/oliveabellastu/).

She points out this moment for Marji, at the bottom of page 52. Marji can be seen walking in the street, with the caption, “My father was not a hero, my mother wanted to kill people… so I went out to play in the street”. Any kid comes to this realization at some point in their lives.

Finally, the importance of the comic book genre and its style was discussed by many people (Alex, Ryan, Gabriel, Maria). Alex and Gabriel mention the deliberate choice of the comic book genre. How the genre can be somewhat informal and that such a format really engages the reader. Alex and Ryan both talk about the importance of the visual aspect of Persepolis. Ryan comments on the simple style of the drawings, along with the use of the colour black (representing darkness and sad times) to draw attention to the message of the story, rather than just the images. Gabriel adds to this notion by discussing how Marjane Satrapi sometimes uses contrast between the words of the story and the images, which make her work more accessible and easier to understand. Maria uses the word “powerful” when talking about the images in Persepolis. I think it embodies perfectly the visual impact the images have.

Before signing off on this class blog, I want to mention how positive everyone’s opinions were of the book. Everyone in the class comes from different cultures and places, and yet a lot of people mentioned that they gained a more positive view of Iran after reading this book. Both Mia and Erin talk about western media as painting Iran in a very negative light. This is where the idea of global citizenship comes in. As Erin puts it, “A citizen of the world must push the boundaries of their own nationality and seek to discover the views of other peoples and places.” This is exactly what people in this class are doing by reading Persepolis and really taking the time to think about these issues. Step by step and day by day, we are becoming global citizens. Olivea sums up all these various ideas and topics perfectly: “I think the fact that we can connect to Satrapi’s experiences makes her story even more powerful. It makes us stop and think about just how different we aren’t.”

Thank you for reading and see you next week!

Clara

Sources (other than the student blogs, who have hyperlinks on their names):

Persepolis: The story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Hello!

The start of October is upon us, and Halloween (along with many midterms) is coming up. This time, I am a class blogger.

Recently, my class has been going over the graphic narrative “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood”, written and drawn by Marjane Satrapi. I enjoyed the book very much, and found myself completely engrossed in reading it.

The story it tells is incredibly eye-opening, giving readers a different perspective of what Iran is like. Following Marji, we find out what it was like to grow up during the Islamic Revolution of Iran, and its war with Iraq. Numerous times, I’ve found myself at a loss for words at the experiences that recounted in the book.

pg 70

For example, in page 70 of the book, we see Marji abandon her faith in God. As Isaiah points out, many people (at least, people in our privileged society and those not facing hardships such as war) do not look so critically upon their faith until they are much older than Marji had been. The depiction of this perfectly suits the way a child would behave when faced with the emotional stress of being helpless and finding an outlet  for her frustration. It is also a very good depiction to how any person would act if they lost their belief in their religion. Anger, and frustration are very typical during such times, as well as the sense of bone-deep exhaustion because of the event or circumstance that has led them to questioning their faith.

I especially love the panel immediately after Marji had cast God out of her life.

pg 53

We see Marji seemingly floating in space, dark and nebulous. She is also very much alone. This shows Marji’s feelings of being at a loss of what to do. Having lost her faith, Marji has also lost one of her senses of support and safety in the universe,  especially so shortly after her beloved uncle had been executed.  It illustrates Marji’s bereavement fantastically.

With examples such as this, we can really see how each panel can be important towards the construction of the story.

pg 15

Ryan looks into the drawing style of “Persepolis”, and I agree with some of his thoughts. The black backgrounds fit the moods of certain scenes fairly well, leaving no room for doubt that the situation is ‘dark’. It’s dark in the way that it is tragic, it is sad, that it is a time where you question the good in humanity. Alternatively, the light/white backgrounds help lighten the book, often being used for happy or amusing situations. It makes it more lighthearted, and relieves the reader from the heaviness that usually accompanies those black backgrounds.

pg 106

pg 1

As Ryan believes, Satrapi’s simplistic drawing style may be for the purpose of focusing a reader’s attention to the message she is trying to convey. However, I find myself thinking that maybe Satrapi’s drawing style, distinct in its simple and almost childish form, was to also demonstrate that this is from the perspective of a child.

Of course, I cannot say or know what Satrapi’s intentions were with using this particular art style, so I can only take the stance that this is my own thoughts about her work.

 
To end, I would like to point out that creators of graphic narratives draw with a purpose. Much like writers who carefully chose words to convey a message, the artists of graphic narratives carefully draw these images to convey a message as well. If there was no need to draw a particular object or action, than the artist would not have drawn it at all. Thus, while reading “Persepolis” (or any graphic narrative), I believe we should pay attention to what is drawn as much as we pay attention to what is written with words.

-Sandra

UBC, what a lovely mess. I’m learning to enjoy being part of this opinionated hodgepodge of tortured souls that we’ve taken to calling “Global Citizens”. I think it was made clear as I read my peers weekly blogs that we all, whether explicitly expressed or not, agree on at least one thing – our world can do better than this.

A common topic that was undertaken in the blogs this time around was the graphic narrative we are currently studying, “Persepolis”, and how it is imperative that we use Marjane Satrapi’s story of her childhood as a means to combat the widespread misconceptions of Iran and its people (Isaiah illustrates this eloquently, worth a read). Satrapi has given us all a fresh framework to understand the Islamic Revolution and the Iran Iraq war, shifting much of the class’ focus to the real, human, relatable people like Satrapi who experienced it first hand. Healthy!

Olivea and Mia both effectively explore this idea of being able to personalize those we feel distant from because of preconceived ideas. By generalizing human themes of childhood rebellion and growth, Olivea argues “the fact that we can connect to Satrapi’s experiences makes her story even more powerful. It makes us stop and think about just how different we aren’t.” Similarly, Mia touches on the negative effects of allowing our views of Iran to be “painted with one brush”. It is heartening that we can reach these grounding levels of humanity as a lens through which to view our neighbours.

In this lies the apparent longing for the realization of our ever changing notion of what we’re calling Global Citizenship, and the implication that (to borrow Erin’s words), “An open-minded perspective to worldly events will inspire understanding and respect for the varying cultures that constitute this global experience.” But, as Peter argues with great conviction, there is an inherent danger in striving for Global Citizenship, which he believes to be an “essentially contested term”. Peter brings to light a certain type of insensitivity in how we often tread on the value of cultural differences and history in our attempt to bring about equality. Summary does it no justice, so read it please.

I think that in our hunger for a world better than this one, our increasingly (and arguably dangerous) post-modern thinking could be tempered with doses of reality like those brought up by Peter. Class discussions have naturally been focused heavily on equality, but it is quite plainly becoming frustrating how quickly we blur our definition of equality into one of sameness, how quickly our desire for open mindedness becomes a complete and utter disregard for truth and reality. I can’t claim to have a clear definition of either, it seems to be a fine line- though I suppose it’s impossible to represent anything linearly anymore. Cheers to post-modernism! 

-Joseph

Hey readers, we finally made it to university, who would’ve thought. Hopefully we’ve all settled in nicely over the past few weeks. During these weeks our class has been a melting pot of ideas, cultures, and personalities. Hundreds of different backgrounds being funneled into this tube of learning we call CAP.

For me, CAP, and the Global Citizen stream has been fascinating. Learning about what a Global Citizen “could” be and trying to figure out what it “should” mean are not only great questions for this year, but a question that everyone should ask themselves. To me being a Global Citizen means that you understand that the world is much more complicated than the life we live. Personally I’ve been raised in a bubble, sheltered from racism, poverty and most of the ugly realities of the world. I come from an Asian American family in Hawaii, and my unique Interpretive Community has given me a unique outlook on the world. It isn’t inherently better or worse, and nobody’s background is, but it is something that makes me me, and being able to accept what makes other people themselves is an integral part of being a Global Citizen.

The CAP stream is an amazing opportunity, it gives us students at UBC the opportunity to really mix and get to know people on a better level. Through this Global Citizen stream I’ve already been able to meet people who’ve helped better my view of the world. One of the first friends I’ve made, Baris, is from turkey, and in his blog he writes what it’s like to come from Turkey to Canada. Talking to Baris outside of class I’ve learned a lot about the “Refugee Crisis” and got a whole new perspective that is really going to make my opinion on the subject much more well rounded. Talking to Baris you’ll learn about the homelessness that emerged in his city, the jobs being taken, and all of these aspects that hit a lot closer to home coming from a real, palpable source.

Learning about new cultures, and trying to understand them is something that CAP is going to give us the opportunity to do each and everyday. However, when we go back to it all we find ourselves asking, why do I want to learn, what’s the point? Joseph’s blog really brought it home on that topic. Joseph talks about how most of the information in the world is already known, and it is a little disheartening at some points, but that’s how life is, however he wraps it up nicely saying, “Many if not all mountains have been climbed. But there is value and joy in getting there, regardless of who has reached it before we have, and in getting there we’re able to give it a new voice.” Its so exciting to see the mindset that people have going into the school year, and it’s even more exciting to think about how they’ll change by the end.

We’ve got a lot going on in these first couple of weeks, during the reading of the academic article, “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shazad we came across a lot of interesting topics and ideas, but we are also learning how to write a paper in that same style. An interesting perspective on the book was Magda’s; In Magda’s blog she writes about the reading and what her take wahttp://blogs.ubc.ca/astu100barisuzel/s on it. Her and I are similar in the way that we find it “hard to gain insight on such an event such as the War on Terror because I myself have not experienced that kind of emotional trauma.” Coming to university we are exposed to all of this knowledge that we haven’t yet seen and it’s sometimes difficult to be as empathetic as I’d like to be. Magda also talks about memories, and it was really interesting. She talked about challenging ideas. She even linked an article about women wrongfully accused of having terrorist affiliation because of how people perceived Muslims after September 11^th.

We all come from different places, and we all want to learn about new things. Our cultures, passions, fears, strength and everything else make us the individuals that we are. We’ve gotten to that point because of the people and experiences that we’ve encountered in our lives, all of which are unique. We’ve migrated to the beautiful campus of UBC and are now part of each other’s “Interpretive Community”. We have people from all over the globe who will undoubtedly bring a new lens for use to view the world from. Whether it’s learning about the media in Mexico through Gabriel, or hearing a first person account of the Syrian refugee crisis from Baris, I’m so excited to further my learning with all of you, and can’t wait to see where this school year takes us. Thanks for reading, talk to you soon!

• Kennedy

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

Hello and  “Guten Tag” my dear readers,

welcome to the ASTU 100 Course Page.

Here you can find the links to all the blogs of my dear course fellows, information about our  literature course, the Global Citizen‘ stream and the general course blog.

My name is Paolina and I have the honor to write one of the first class blogs for you.

Let me give you a quick review of what we have done the first few weeks of this semester:

Parallel to the book “Academic Writing: an Introduction” by Janet Giltrow, Richard Gooding, Daniel Burgoyne and Marlene Sawatsky we read the article “The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shahzad .

While “Academic Writing: an Introduction“ is supposed to prepare us students for the big, new world of academic writing, the article is dealing with the topic of remembering and learning.

Based on a study about how Canadian students remember the War of Terror, Shahzad wants to raise awareness for the fact that interpretative communities play a big part in how we remember and learn about events and how they influence “the consumption and negotiation of knowledge inside and outside the classrooms” (Shahzad, Abstract), with the intention of helping teachers to improve their teaching strategies though the knowledge they gained though the article, but also making the reader of the article reflecting their own experiences and situations critically.

Reading though the blogs, I was wondering about the connection between the book and the article.

Olivea picked the topic of citation, mentioned in “Academic Writing: an Introduction”.

Through her personal experience described in her blog and following critical reflection on the meaning of citation, it gets clear that citation is “a way of creating a discussion around her argument” (Olivea)  though “orchestrating voices“, as it’s called in the book (Academic Writing: an Introduction).

If you continue through the blogposts, Therese  talks about

“…what happens if your communities have the same worldview?“ and

“How do we get pass their ideas?“

exemplifying these questions through her own personal childhood experiences in a religious family.

“My point is that the ideas forced on us or given to us by our communities aren’t always correct.“ (Therese)

For me personally, this is a very strong statement, which takes a lot of courage.

Acknowledging, that the social norms and world views you are given by your environment or “interpretative community“ are most of the time biased and not rational, is not an easy process.

But here I found the connection to Oliveas Blog and “Academic Writing: an Introduction“ .

Therese continues her thought and ends her blog with the conclusion that one has to seek information and knowledge and educate himself/herself in order to widen their horizon.

She and Olivea basically talk about creating a discussion (through critical thinking in different life situations or citation in an academic article), looking at different points of view and not being satisfied by one simple answer.

One shouldn’t  be afraid of what they don’t know… yet.

Through a broader knowledge and exploring different points of view the bigger picture becomes much clearer.

(And by the way Therese also builds a connection to another part of the CAP stream: Sociology! So read her blog!)

But there are so many different aspects of interpretative communities, right?

It is a very complex topic, for example regarding the question of degree of authority (check out Sandras Blog!) of the communities and can interpretative communities change through for example a change of location.

Baris demonstrates this with his own experience of moving to Canada‚ away from his „old“ into a „new“ and unknown interpretative community.

Or, going back to the role of teachers as an interpretative community, Grace brings up the question, if the government “should shoulder more responsibility“ (Grace) because of it’s big influence on the media and the flow of information.

Which brings me to Melissas Blog. It continues the thought of mass media manipulation though not only the government or companies but though individuals taking advantage of the simple access to, for example websites like wikipedia.

It is a frequently used website, on which a lot of people rely (I wouldn’t recommend that…) and which isn’t really strict about protecting and controlling the content of their websites…

So the media is a great resource of knowledge, as Melissa says, because we are able to learn about events all over the globe without leaving the house, but it also has to be constantly questioned and enjoyed with caution.

But can we measure the influence of an interpretative community?

Mel, referring to Shahzad and the collected data, comes to the conclusion:

The stronger the emotional connection to the community the bigger the influence .

“one’s obviously going to be more convinced with the opinion of a close friend than someone they just met off tinder.“ (Mel)

So we are back to family/friends as a interpretative community, which closes the circle and brings this Class Blog almost to its end.

Almost.

I want to end it with one blog, written by Joseph, with which I could personally really relate with because that topic kind of haunted me, too, over the last weeks.

It deals with the general but really though question:

“Why learn?“ (Joseph)

and is a great reminder, that often the journey is the destination (I won’t tell you anymore, read it!).

I hoped you got a basic overview of what we are doing in our ASTU100 class and enjoyed the first blog of my life. Have a nice day. : )

See you soon!

Paolina

Sources:

Magda:http://blogs.ubc.ca/magda2370/

Olivea:http://blogs.ubc.ca/oliveabellastu/

Sandra: http://blogs.ubc.ca/notquitethereyet/

Baris: http://blogs.ubc.ca/astu100barisuzel/

Grace: http://blogs.ubc.ca/gracelong/

Melissa http://blogs.ubc.ca/melsblog/

Joseph: http://blogs.ubc.ca/astu100josephmoric/

Therese: http://blogs.ubc.ca/tbarrozo/

http://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/343/1073