Jessica Matthews

In this blog post, I will be researching the concept of counter-narratives. A counter-narrative, for the purposes of this blog, can be seen as an autobiography that resists stigmatizing those with disabilities (Couser 31). For this blog, I will be analyzing at the memoir Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton; I propose that this memoir is an example of a counter-narrative as it breaks traditional beliefs of disability.    This memoir is Knighton’s story of his progression into blindness. When Knighton was 18 he found out that he would slowly, but surely, have…read more

Since the age of 5, I have been an on and off diary writer. My earliest entries were fairly basic as I had no grammar, spelling, or structure skills. As I began to develop skills during my pre-teen years, I started to appreciate the creative outlet. My journal was an excellent place where I could express myself, reflect on my actions, and develop my writing skills. My actions of keeping a journal are not uncommon, a study by LifeJournal,  shows that  50% of her random selection of 114 people kept…read more

Located at the end of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver campus, stands a hidden yet striking, large, grey, concrete building that is called the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). In my ASTU 100 class, a first-year Art Studies course, we were given the assignment of visiting MOA, specifically the Amazonia exhibit, and reflect on our visit to MOA through a blog post. The Amazonia: The Rights of Nature Exhibit was curated by Nuno Porto and is located in the O’Brian Gallery in MOA.     When I visited the…read more

Facebook is a social media site that was released in 2004  and has been an internet powerhouse ever since. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg, who was a Harvard undergraduate student at the time of Facebook’s release. While Facebook has dominated the social media scene for more than 10 years, there has been recent disinterest in the social media site. This blog post will analyze the movement for people to delete their Facebook accounts. Facebook is a website where one can share their life milestones and view other people’s life…read more

Susan Robinson believes the word disabled, “detonates a mindset of less than that utterly disregards capacity, ability, potential, instead prioritizing brokenness and lack.” Robinson is a woman who is legally blind and can be labelled by society as “disabled.” In her TED Talk speech, she reveals how she “fails at being disabled” by challenging stereotypes regarding disabled individuals. She gives listeners the five tips she uses so that others can fail at being disabled. This blog post will analyze Robinson’s advice and connect her story to Couser’s disability rhetorics. Her first…read more

Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct As a university student, I am immersed in an academic world where I must constantly be reading, writing, and studying for various classes. There is always a long list of tasks that I must complete before my next class. Balancing academic calendars alongside social calendars and work calendars can be difficult for students. Drowning in schoolwork, high tuition costs and pressure to succeed are some of the many reasons students are compelled to commit academic misconduct. This blog post will analyze academic cheating in current…read more