“I pause here” was a common refrain from feedback in class this year. Pauses, at least how I conceive them, work in multiple ways. In feedback, it is like a check up, a tool to make sure that you are on track. It can serve as a rhetorical tool, akin to silences (something we studied intensively this year) in which pauses show a sense of division then continuation, they show “the degree of integration and independence” that clauses have together (Goldman-Eisler 103). The key difference between silences and pauses is that silence is required for pauses, but pauses are not necessary for silence— silence can stand alone.

To further this discussion I am looking back to our studies on archives, in which the key concept from Rodney Carter’s “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence” was silence and its implications. One of the components of the article that stuck with me was how attempting to cover up or “fill” in a silence while something seems noble by archivists could actually hamper the silenced even more because it rewrites the record and the marginalized may not want to be included (Carter 226). I think a central concept that Carter puts out that is central to this course is for groups of people to represent themselves on their own terms. Looking back at the memoirs we read from Cockeyed to Persepolis every author denoted some form of staying true to themselves be it with their physical disabilities to their ideologies.

In this way, pauses from feedback become relevant to this discussion because the implication of getting a statement “I pause here” is a nudge to stay true to yourself and check up to make sure you are on track. During the Archives Project, there was intensive amounts of feedback and collaboration involved coincidentally working with “silences” that at times made it hard for our group to figure out what we presenting, however by pausing and reflecting back at what we had done we were able to put a project together and make it work.

To extend pauses outside of class, I look to Emma Gonzalez’s speech at March for Our Lives in Washington, DC last month. I think her speech was a secondary reason I am even writing about pauses. Her speech was approximately six minutes twenty seconds long in reference to the length of time it took for the Parkland, Florida shooter to attack her high school Marjory Stoneman Douglas, but most of her speech was actually silence until she resumed and concluded (Lopez). There is power in pause and just like the feedback or just like archival “silences” it makes you reflect- especially with an urge to fill in the gaps of speech.

On a last and final note, I would like to thank Laurie and all of the ASTU class for a great year and for giving me pause to reflect on all the things we have done. Until next time!

Works Cited

Carter, Rodney G. S. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.” Archivaria.61 (2006): 215. Web.

Goldman-Eisler, Frieda. “Pauses, Clauses, Sentences.” Language and Speech 15.2 (1972): 103-13. ComDisDome. Web.

Lopez, German. “Watch: Emma Gonzalez’s incredible moment of silence at March for Our Lives.” Vox. March 25, 2018. Web. <https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/24/17159916/march-for-our-lives-emma-gonzalez-silence>.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me is a relational memoir addressed to his son that reflects on Coates’ life in the broader context of being an African-American male. It is interesting to note how Coates structurally writes the text; he does so by setting the text up as a letter. The letter structure does a few things that are very important for the message that Coates is trying to send. He is making his personal narrative into political speech by using his experience as a black man in urban America and documenting the marginalization and injustice he felt. He also shows a family dynamic; a deep bond and connection to his son that cannot be unbroken.

Contemporaries such as Nobel Peace Prize winner and author Toni Morrison have compared what Coates has done in his text to be akin to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time (Wallace-Wells). Baldwin’s text was set up much the same; addressing similar racial problems in America to his nephew. Coates indeed has said that the similarities of his and Baldwin’s text are “essentially literary” and while served as an inspiration, Coates felt compelled more specifically after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri to write his memoir (Wallace-Wells). The impact of these two pieces are important, both texts ended up becoming New York Times best sellers and have had large impacts in American literature.

This could be said because of how Coates and Baldwin use their personal experience and turn it into a political endeavour; stemming from a long genre of autobiographies that use their positions in order to call for change. In the American context, one of the earliest texts that did as such is The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass (Bennett 242). Douglass, a freed slave and eventually one of the first major African-American statesmen in the 19th century, writes about his experiences growing up and uses his position as a former slave to fuel the broader abolition movement, which in turn eventually allows him to see the end of slavery and the beginning of a new era of race relations before his death in 1895 (241).

While it remains seen whether or not Coates’ memoir will have the same impact as Baldwin’s or Douglass’ texts both in the literary context and the political context, Between the World and Me has already given some thought to modern race relations today. It is being read in classrooms throughout the US as a book suitable within the high school Common Core curriculum, with Common Core being the basic educational standards many states follow (Penguin Random House Audio). While not only a popular read, it has also seen the furthering and mainstreaming of the Movement for Black Lives, which calls for an acknowledgement of police brutality and the injustices black people face in the US, with similar calls and a similar origination as Coates’ text.

Works Cited

Bennett, Nolan. “To Narrate and Denounce.” Political Theory 44.2 (2016): 240-64. CrossRef. Web.

“Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates | Teacher’s Guide.” Penguin Random House Audio. Web. Mar 4, 2018 <http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/teachers-guide/220290/between-the-world-and-me/>.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

Wallace-Wells, Benjamin. “The Hard Truths of Ta-Nehisi Coates.” Daily Intelligencer. -07-13T01:00:00.000Z 2015. Web. Mar 4, 2018 <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/07/ta-nehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me.html>.

Amazonia is an exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology that looks at the intersection of indigeneity, colonialism and the ecosystem of the Amazon region in South America. While the exhibit is small, it showcases original artifacts from the tribal groups and settlers, photographs, short video clips and numerous statistics and political laws that affect the region. It is interesting to look at the exhibit from a geographical lens because it ties in all the interconnections that led to why the region is the way it is now and how it affects the people that live there and the broader globalizing world.

Much of the exhibit illustrates tension between the Western settler nation-state and the natural tribal existance many tribes had before. A striking statistic was looking at how between 2003 to 2015 there were 891 targeted assassinations against indigenous people in Brazil, the largest country out of the nine countries that hold jurisdiction over the region (MOA). Within Brazil, the tensions between the Mebêngôkre (outsiders have also called this group the Kayapo), a local indigenous tribe, and the Brazilian government over the building of the Belo Monte Dam, which would provide major hydroelectricity to Sao Paulo by using the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon has been tumultuous and adds to the the growing clash of globalization and local diversity (MOA, Eaton).

The headdress from the Exhibit. Photo used with permission from Lilly Flawn.

The Belo Monte conflict is covered its connection to the broader urban world in a way that documents how a local issue can become global in an information era via the “space of flows,” as famed sociologist Manuel Castells would note (Castells 229). The “space of flows” refers to how physical places can have an impact all over the world due to the increased technology tied with a time-space convergence making the world a smaller and interconnected place (229). The exhibit features a headdress from the Mebêngôkre supplemented with news magazines from the 1980s when the first conflict of the dam started highlighting this convergence. The story of how the headdress came to be in Vancouver at the museum is interesting because it ties a connection between the indigenous and the environmentalists, namely between the Mebêngôkre, Dr. Tara Cullis and her husband David Suzuki who all actively fought against the dam (MOA). In addition, the news magazines show how local and international media quickly spread out information about the conflict. For example, one of the Brazilian negotiators during the first round of talks between the government and various tribes was cut by a machete by a member of the Mebêngôkre and was quickly on the front of the Times and Brazilian magazines (MOA).

While the Belo Monte conflict was only one small fragment of the broader exhibit, it showed the larger abstractions and concepts of which Amazonia was about. At the convergence of geography, globalism and colonialism, the region is threatened environmentally and socially. The same interconnections however can also help raise awareness and educate others about the rights of the natural world and tie environmentalists fighting for nature from Vancouver and indigenous peoples fighting for the preservation of their lives together.

Works Cited

Castells, Manuel. “Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age.” The City Reader. Sixth edition. ed. London: Routledge Ltd – M.U.A, 2015. 229-240. Print. Routledge Urban Reader Series.

Eaton, Joseph. “Pictures: A River People Awaits an Amazon Dam.” National Geographic News. 2011-12-13T20:01:00-0500 Web. Jan 18, 2018.<https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/12/pictures/111213-belo-monte-dam-amazon/>.

Flawn, Lillian. Photo of Headdress. 2018. , Vancouver.

Porto, Nuno. Amazonia: The Rights of Nature. Vancouver: Museum of Anthropology, 2018. Web. Jan 18, 2018.  <http://moa.ubc.ca/portfolio_page/amazonia/>

Marching at the Women’s March on Washington. Photo by the author.

Facebook is the largest social network in the world with over two billion users as of the third quarter of 2017 (“Facebook users worldwide 2017”). While started with a simple profile interface, Facebook has now become (with features like the Timeline) “your life” as Mark Zuckerberg would enthusiastically gloat (Hof). A large feature of Facebook is the cultivation and creation of “events” which allow users to plan different activities (Nadkarni and Hofmann 244). Facebook Events have been used in different applications large and small, ranging from birthdays to protests. In 2015, 550 million people used the service monthly (Facebook Events). When a user wants to go to an event they hit a “going” or “ignore” button to let other users know if they will be going and what their interests are. It can create a viral atmosphere that can mobilize people for certain events, especially with the rise of political movements or more furry endeavours such as “dog meet-ups.” Facebook over the course of a few years time has quickly assumed the role of event planner and can signal out to millions of people about different happenings going on.

It is interesting to see, as one of the two billion Facebook users, how important these events have been in my own life and around me. On a given day,  I see concert invitations, UBC Calendar parties, protest invitations back from Washington, DC where I grew up, to meme events. It contributes to my digital life where a “friend” or other users can see what “events” I am going to and who I’m going with. It is important because there is a sense of validation on the platform that makes me as a user feel good when a few friends like that I’m going to a specific place.

In January, I went to the Women’s March on Washington, which was started on Facebook by Teresa Shook, a progressive activist motivated to have her voice heard after the election of Donald Trump (Stein). The march was a convergence of social media and the physical world and was able to spread far and wide because of the environment that Facebook had made coupled with frustration and motivation of millions of people who felt similar to Shook. In this sense, Facebook’s events feature was one of the main reasons why the Women’s March became the largest protest in U.S. history and one of the largest global marches.

Facebook as a social media empire has many features of the internet encapsulated into one place. In this sense, Zuckerberg’s words about Facebook becoming one’s life is becoming true, but as the network grows and evolves, its uses will continue to have large impacts on the discussion of one’s personal story, the events and the movements they follow in the physical domain.

Works Cited

Broomfield, Matt. “Women’s March Against Donald Trump is the Largest Day of Protests in US History, Say Political Scientists.” The Independent Jan 23, 2017. Web. Nov 13, 2017 <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/womens-march-anti-donald-trump-womens-rights-largest-protest-demonstration-us-history-political-a7541081.html>.

Facebook Events. Web. Nov 13, 2017. <https://events.fb.com/#why-facebook-events>.

“Facebook users worldwide 2017.” Statista. 2017. Web. Nov 13, 2017 <https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/>.

Hof, Robert. “LIVE with Mark Zuckerberg at F8: Facebook Is Your Life.” Forbes. Sept 22, 2011. Web. Nov 13, 2017 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2011/09/22/live-with-mark-zuckerberg-at-facebook-f8/>.

Kittner, Maxwell. Women’s March at 7th and Madison Sts NW. 2017. , Washington, DC.

Mehran Meh, Ran. Biggest Dog Meet Ever. Vancouver., 2017. Web. <https://www.facebook.com/events/116331715707477/>.

Nadkarni, Ashwini, and Stefan G. Hofmann. “Why do People use Facebook?” Personality and Individual Differences 52.3 (2012): 243-9. Web. Nov 13, 2017.

Perry Stein. “The woman who started the Women’s March with a Facebook post reflects: ‘It was mind-boggling’.” Washington Post – Blogs. Jan 31, 2017. Web. <https://search.proquest.com/docview/1863541403>.

In this blog post, I am going to analyze how Malala Yousafzai is affected by media coverage of herself as a schoolgirl in Pakistan from the chapter “The Diary of Gul Makai” in Yousafzai’s memoir I Am Malala co-written with Christina Lamb. The chapter is centred around Yousafzai working with a BBC radio correspondent to document her life as a schoolgirl in the Swat Valley, an area where the Taliban are especially hostile to young girls receiving an education.

Unlike many other girls her age, Malala’s upbringing was unusual, as her father is an educator and school owner (Malala Fund). The liberal upbringing of educating girls, not conventional in Taliban-controlled Pakistan due to longstanding cultural norms, along with a sense of activism in her direct family made it possible for her to be propelled into the spotlight. This begins with “The Diary of Gul Makai,” an expose of Yousafzai’s life as schools for girls are shut down around her, published on BBC Urdu. She is at this point twelve years old and is propelled into using a pseudonym for privacy and protection by Hai Kakar, the BBC reporter. It had a big impact on her life as the diary itself started gaining traction with newspapers who would print extracts (157). The big point to take away from this experience is when Malala presents a strong message to the reader saying that “we [the schoolgirls] were learning how to struggle. And we were learning how powerful we are when we speak” (157). Malala’s identity becomes solidified and she garners her ability to speak as a schoolgirl and directs the message she wants the world to hear.  

Her interaction with the media emboldens her to continue her role as an activist for girls education. Following the diary, countless media outlets, both Pakistani and international, requested interviews again and again. Malala wrote “that she enjoyed speaking into the microphone so much her that friends would tease her” (160). On the flipside of things, her interactions with the media made her especially vulnerable because the Taliban were able to pinpoint her and her school as a target— shutting it down and eventually shooting her (9). It is with the moment when she is shot that her identity and interaction with the media comes, together.

Malala has become a media icon and her recovery was the main news throughout the end of 2012. Today, she is still actively campaigning for equal rights and girl’s education as strong as before while also studying at Oxford (“Profile: Malala Yousafzai”). Her early interactions with the diary may have been the spark to cultivate a sense of efficacy that has been carried on through her life.

Works Cited

Makai, Gul. “Diary of a Pakistani Schoolgirl.”  01-19 2009. Web. Oct 22, 2017 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7834402.stm>.

“Malala’s Story.” Malala Fund. 2017. Web. October 22, 2017 <https://www.malala.org/malalas-story>.

“Profile: Malala Yousafzai.” BBC News 08-17 2017. Web. Oct 22, 2017 <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23241937>.

Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. “The Diary of Gul Makai.” I Am Malala. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013a. 154-164. Print.

—. “Prologue: The Day My World Changed.” I Am Malala. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013b. 3-9. Print.

Nationality is typically one of the first things that a person will identify with, yet the entire concept of being connected to a certain nation is very fluid. Even in the context of our daily lives, nationality cannot be escaped with 24% of UBC students having international status as of 2015/16 and many domestic students who also have a separate nationality other than/in addition to being Canadian. The highly-influential theorist Max Weber points out that “natio,” the latin root of nationality, has been historically seen as a legal concept (179). As such, the idea of being connected with one nation and then having it taken away is not unusual. Though nationality is seen as being essential in this era of globalization and nation-states, the reality is that it can be stripped away.

Dual-nationality, in particular, is something I want to examine. Today, it is common in heterogeneous immigration states, such as Canada or the United States today, for citizens to identify and belong to multiple nationalities, yet it was shunned upon during past wartimes. With “World War II and the advent of the Cold War, dual nationality came to present the possibility not simply of interstate complication but of actual subversion” (Spiro 1443). For example, this meant in the context of these conflicts, if one was German-American or Russian-American there was an element of distrust among the larger populace simply because of their nationality. There is a sense of allegiance usually thought of when one claims to a nationality— and so when a person’s dual-identities conflict with each other it creates a conundrum.

Japanese internment in both North American countries, in response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, highlights the trickiness of having the dual identity of being Canadian (or American) and Japanese. In a documentary entitled “A Degree of Justice: Japanese Canadian UBC Students of 1942” a common sentiment was expressed by the former UBC students: Japanese-Canadian are the same as non-Japanese Canadians. Because of their status of being dual nationals, their “Canadian-ness” was stripped away from them. The Japanese nationality overrode the Canadian nationality the students also had. The former students had curfews imposed, they wore badges and men could not be apart of the Canadian Officer Training Corps or the C.O.T.C. The irony among all of this was when one of the male students was asked by his Chinese friend if he wanted to use his badge, saying that the RCMP would not know the difference between a Japanese and Chinese person. This highlights the fluid aspect of nationality and how at a time of strong nationalist sentiment there still was little distinguishing other groups from each other.

A lot has changed since World War II, and nationality today is either as important as ever or not at all depending on how one interprets the world. But one has to always remember: nothing is truly permanent—something as simple as nationality can become the single most important status to identify and discriminate one by.

Works Cited:

McNeill, Laurie, et al. “Reflecting on ‘A Degree of Justice: Japanese Canadian UBC Students of 1942.'” University of British Columbia, 15 Sept. 2017, Vancouver. Lecture.

Spiro, Peter J. “Dual Nationality and the Meaning of Citizenship.” Emory Law Journal 46.4 (1997): 1411-1486.

“UBC Overview & Facts.” Overview and Facts, University of British Columbia, www.ubc.ca/about/facts.html.

Weber, Max. “Essays In Sociology.” Full Text of “From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology”, Internet Archive, archive.org/stream/frommaxweberessa00webe/frommaxweberessa00webe_djvu.txt.

Yoshizawa, Alejandro, director. A Degree of Justice: Japanese Canadian UBC Students of 1942. Youtube, UBC Library, 19 Mar. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8jGdYMmwfQ&feature=youtu.be.

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