Nina’s blog

Conceptual poetry is a genre of writing I was previously not very familiar with. I typically do not read much poetry on my own time, so everything I have read previously was in secondary school. The pieces I read back then were consistent throughout the years and I wouldn’t say anything I came across was that ‘surprising.’ However, while reading Injun I found myself more engaged while reading. I was surprised by the way the style of writing changed and morphed as I continued to flip through the pages. Seeing the seemingly ‘perfect’ couplets in the first few pages fall apart is something I found appealing because it is not something I would expect to see in a book of poetry, as it is unlike any I have read before. Although I found it interesting, I cannot say that I love it, and although each page becoming more disorganized had a purpose of its own with a significant meaning behind it, I found it to be a more difficult style of poetry to read. Conceptual poetry reminds me of collages. Injun samples various pieces of work by different writers, much like a collage would. Collages take those separate pieces of work and create one new whole with a new meaning behind it.

As we are beginning to discuss more Indigenous issues in ASTU this term, it is crucial to be properly informed and educated on such topics. I grew up in the city of Vancouver, which is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Since elementary school, this has been a land acknowledgement, I have become very familiar with. As a settler on the land on which I live, understanding the significance behind the acknowledgement is crucial, as it recognizes that we are not part of Indigenous groups, but we live here on their land. It is an act of reconciliation that recognizes the traditional territory of the Indigenous people who called this land home long before the arrival of settlers. When looking at the novel Indian Horse, I believe that it is important to approach it with an open and respectful mind. As the novel takes up the subject of colonialism, it touches on sensitive topics that can provide a learning opportunity in areas that may be unfamiliar. I hope the novel Indian Horse has a lot I can take away from and pass onto others in order to create a more informed community. 

In term one of ASTU, the academic world opened to me, which has allowed me to expand my knowledge of various forms of writing and research. In the first module or so, we learned about academic integrity. This topic continued through the following weeks in assignments. The first few weeks helped me transition from the traditional way of writing papers in high school to a more academic/research style. Through writing activities in ASTU, such as the literature review, I adjusted to not using the generic essay format. Instead, I structured my writing in a way that made the most sense for what I was writing about. This way of writing aided me later in writing papers for other classes. What I learned included a lot of referencing, something I did not do much of in high school papers. I can now better analyze literature, extracting the various themes and topics, which got expanded and applied to other relevant course material. A goal I have for myself in the second term is to further the connection between what I see in literature and deepen the meaning of what is apparent in the texts. I hope to do this by taking more time to analyze and brainstorm my ideas. I also hope to bring the skills I have acquired from the close reading and literature review assignment into future work in ASTU.

In last week’s class, we read a chapter of Judith Butler’s Frames of War. I wanted to discuss how I felt while reading and a quote I chose for my LP group to connect in our meeting last week. In the beginning, I found myself confused about what she was trying to get at, but by the end, I thought I had a somewhat clear understanding of what she was trying to articulate in her writing. As Kendall mentioned in class, it was the type of writing where one must read more than just a page to understand. With this, I found it a little tricky to take gist notes on each page one at a time. I ended up reading the whole chapter and then going back and analyzing each page. Doing this gave me a more well-rounded understanding of each concept Butler discussed. 

I found the quote, “Those we kill are not quite human and not quite alive, which means that we do not feel the same horror and outrage over the loss of their lives as we do over the loss of those lives that bear national or religious similarity to our own.” I thought this was an engaging and impactful quote. It is something that I have thought about, but I have never seen someone put it on paper like that before. It emphasizes the empathy we feel for those who are like us, whether that be a nationality or religion. I think Butler wants to highlight the impact shared lived experiences have on people as individuals and how it influences our communities and who we come to feel “responsibility” for. We see this in our everyday lives, and I think it is true that we tend to feel for those we consider similar to ourselves.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/hamzadavison/2022/10/17/my-thoughts-on-thi-buis-the-best-we-could-do/

In Hamza’s blog, he discusses Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do and what stood out to him. The first thing he mentions is the layout of Bui’s graphic novel. He states that it “often broke the typical comic book format.” I found this stood out to me as well when I was reading. I thought the format was clever and changed how I perceived some of the text. It emphasized specific subjects within the story, delivering it uniquely.

Another thing that Hamza said stuck out to him was Bui highlighting the inability to see your parents as anything but that, seen on pages 316-319. This idea is something that I as well have thought about before. I am fortunate to have parents who love sharing stories from their pasts, but I find it bizarre to think that they had lived independently from my brother and me and independently from each other. Although they have said their lives felt fulfilled, they emphasize the drastic change having kids made on them. Hamza suggests that “truth often doesn’t process with people until they become a parent as Thi Bui did.” I think this is true of many things, as people typically find it difficult to fully understand another person’s perspective on a given subject until they experience it themselves. In Bui’s case, after she gave birth and became a parent, she gained a more empathetic relationship with her mother.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the first CEL talk in person due to timing, but I was still really engaged with what the speakers were saying in the recording. Dr. Mauro, one of the speakers, talked about how CEL gets incorporated within the law and society stream. He found many students were interested in human rights, social justice issues, and the law. With this, they brought in multiple people and non-profit organizations doing similar work, giving students first-hand perspectives of the projects they were working. I think it’s really powerful to see the impact these first hand perspectives can have on students who have only had the opportunity to go so far and research the topics. Students also had the opportunity to go out into the community and learn viewpoints which differed from their own. I think these opportunities allow students to have a more open mind and gain new, authentic perspectives on topics they are passionate for.

Following Dr. Mauro, I found it really helpful to hear from CAP student alumni, as they had insightful experiences in the program and had a lot to say. Two speakers, Isabelle and Kiera, both visited the reconciliation pole at UBC, honouring the Indigenous community. One found it helped change and give additional perspectives, looking at the communities and what it means to be a community. The other found it to be more of a reflective experience, reflecting on their own familial roots. I found that regardless of having different takes on what they were reflecting on, they both came out having learned and experienced valuable lessons which have helped their perspectives grow. This is something I really look forward to in the following weeks, as there is always something more to learn about the topics you are passionate about, and you never know what might come to surprise you.

Since entering the academic world, I have come to recognize a vast difference in the style of writing in university than in high school. In my high school English literature classes, we were always taught to follow a very consistent layout for essay writing. It would start with an introduction that included a hook and thesis, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The conclusion would typically summarize what we had written about in the previous paragraphs and would restate the thesis. In one of my recent discussion classes, the TA told us that in the conclusion paragraph, we should, instead of summarizing, bring in additional ideas and information that we may not have had room to talk about in the body paragraphs. I found this a bit surprising because in all my English literature classes, I have always been told to summarize and reiterate more simply the main point of the essay. I think another thing many of us were surprised to hear was that we are allowed to use “I” in our writing. In high school this was considered the biggest sin by any English teacher. The rule and usage around the word “I” became so integrated into my head it would never even cross my mind to use the word in any of my writing. As it has only been four weeks, I wonder what else will come to my surprise in the rest of this first year that will differ from the rules of writing I have previously learned and been taught to follow.

Although I already had previous knowledge of academic integrity, after looking further into the topic, I was surprised to find some new details that I was unaware of. Academic integrity is something I was introduced to in elementary school with simple words. The basic idea was, “do not cheat,” and if you do, “you will get in a lot of trouble,” both of which are true, and in the last few years, I have learned the significance of it. The articles we read for our LC groups discussed giving credit and why it is much more crucial in the university world. Unlike in high school, a large portion of the writing done in university is done with a research purpose. It becomes a standard to have multiple sources to use as examples and to connect your own ideas. The proper citation gives credit to things that may not be original to you. This allows you to build and share your perspective on work while respecting and honouring the creator. Properly citing also ables the reader to trace the original work back to the person who came up with such ideas. I believe “academic integrity” can be defined as an act of honesty and fairness to honour other people’s work, ideas, and research. When watching the multiple videos in the academic integrity module, I realized how many people had such powerful perspectives on it. I always knew it was essential and understood the concept, but I did not realize how much more people had to say about it. It was interesting to see the perspective of both young and older people, as their viewpoints held similar points but delivered their messages with different approaches. As we all know, there are consequential outcomes to breaking the “moral code” of academic integrity. With this arose the question, what happens if you make a less relevant mistake like citing an author incorrectly or using the wrong format? As well as more general questions involving genuine mishaps that were unintentional.

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