Humanities Passion Projects 20-21

 Projects Funded by the Gould Center

Kimiko Adler and Jack Stern: Should I Eat the Cookie? Exploring Plato and Socrates's Akrasia

I know that I should eat carrots instead of a cookie at Collins. Eating carrots is better for my health. Yet I eat the cookie anyway. Though eating the Collins cookie is a simple (and now often missed) instance, this act against my own better judgment demonstrates akrasia, or weakness of will. Plato tried tackling the idea of akrasia and virtue in general in a couple of his dialogues. In the span of our project, we explore questions like: What is akrasia and why is akrasia important? Are there any prescriptive measures we can take, or are we all doomed for a weakness in will? We hope that through studying the Platonic dialogues, we can further our understanding of the Platonic, Socratic, and Aristotelian concepts of virtue, and the role akrasia plays - if any. A unique aspect about ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Plato’s works, is how it is conveyed. In Socratic dialogues, individuals partake in discussions with the intent of reaching a deeper understanding of a concept. Conveying ideas through a dialogue offers unique advantages: it preempts objections, breaks down arguments into clearly delineated steps, and shows how different people’s conceptions of ideas relate to one another’s. We intend to replicate this unique format for our own dialogues; the Gould Center passion project on Platonic philosophy gives us a perfect opportunity to do so.

FINAL PROJECT

Fangyi (Steve) Wang: A Dialogue with Tibetan Monks on the Meaning of Life

Born in a Buddhist family, I have long learned about Buddhist practices, including chanting, meditation. However, I know nothing about Buddhist Philosophy: What reasonings do Buddhism for its practices? Is Buddhism more of a Philosophy or a way of life? What is the meaning of life for Buddhists? So, I plan to go to monasteries in Tibet and ask about Buddhist Philosophy with monks. Specifically, for this project, I wish to converse with them on the philosophical issue of the Meaning of Life. Before leaving for Tibet, I will first read more on Buddhist Philosophy and develop a list of questions focusing on the Buddhist and their conception of the meanings of life. I will also prepare counter-arguments from some Western philosophers' arguments to further the dialogue. With all the questions prepared, I will travel to Tibet with Tashi, my high school friend and cinematographer of the project, to interview monks with different backgrounds. Two prominent scholars in the Kumbum monastery, a monk very critical of certain Buddhist practices, a monk who now works at a Tibetan nightclub, are on the list of all interviewees. There are two deliverables in this project. I will first organize all interview questions and responses based on topics in a written dialogue format. I will also edit with Tashi to create a documentary series in the course of the spring semester. Stay tuned for the dialogue documentary series!

FINAL PROJECT

Mimi Thompson: Do Re Mimi’s Poetry Prompts

Do Re Mimi. Somebody once told me that if I ever became a DJ, Do Re Mimi should be my name. A personal spin on the classic musical scales. While I consider myself to be an expert playlist creator, my passions lie elsewhere, in the realms of the written, rather than the sung, word. Thus, I decided to pen Do Re Mimi as my writer’s nickname and I am using the Gould Center’s Passion Project as the motivation to launch a personal creative writing website. Although this blog will feature short stories, other projects, and serve as a personal branding platform, this winter I am focused on designing the site and writing 15 poems for the launch. The prompts will be crowdsourced from my friends and family. I’ll be collecting as many prompts as possible (drop me a note anytime with potential ones.) and picking 3 each week from a hat. Examples include: write a poem from the perspective of a caterpillar, about a lost shoe, using the word “paper,” in iambic pentameter… you get the idea! I’ll document the writing process from prompt selection to writing, to making edits and posting them online. The final deliverable will include this website (with a logo and personal design) and the poems, each with their own unique page. I plan to post all prompts I receive on a Google sheets link to inspire other people to write their own poems.

FINAL PROJECT

Aileen Zheng: Rediscovering the Joy of Reading for Pleasure

My love for reading began at a young age. My favorite memories include my dad taking me on weekly trips to the local public library, and middle school spent in the library learning commons browsing the bookshelves, checking out as many books as I could fit in my backpack. Through both good times and bad, reading was my escape, allowing me to enter a whole new world. But, like many other people who were avid readers when they were younger, I pushed reading aside when I became busier with schoolwork and extracurriculars. I also did not enjoy reading anymore because it became an activity I had to do for class, not because I wanted to. I missed the joy of reading for fun and pleasure. This winter, I hope to regain that passion and love for reading. I want to read the books that I’ve been recommended, books that I’ve seen great reviews for online, and interesting books I’ve encountered in my classes. After reading books checked out from my local public library or purchased from my local independent bookstore, I will write book reviews and post it to a bookstagram account. Through this account, I am excited to share my own thoughts on books, connect with fellow bookworms, and rediscover the same passion I had for reading when I was younger.

FINAL PROJECT

Wren Cilimburg: Virtual Climate Art Walk

My passion project is creating a virtual art walk and audio guide that focuses on climate change in my hometown. I am connecting with local artists and asking them to create or share an art piece that represents climate change, climate resiliency, or expresses their connection to the natural world. I will also create my own piece of art! I’ll put the artwork up around my town in public places or in the windows of local businesses. I will talk to each artist about their piece and record these conversations. Finally, I’ll create a podcast that guides people to the various art pieces and explains them. It will include parts of my interviews with the artists, as well as my own reflections, as well as poems or texts that I feel are relevant. The audio guide will tell people where to begin the walk and give directions throughout, so each person who participates follows the same route. My virtual art walk will serve to remind people of the importance of environmental action and the urgency of this moment, hopefully pushing people to take action in their own lives. I think it can also provide hope, by using art to remind people of the beauty of the natural world and everything it gives us. Additionally, I will create a virtual version of the walk for people who are not physically in Missoula or cannot walk long distances. This will consist of photographs of the art and an adjusted podcast episode.

FINAL PROJECT 1 & 2

Basil Lloyd-Moffett: Wales: The Country. The Myth. The Blog.

I'm writing a semi-fictional blog about learning Welsh: factual in the sense that I'm actually learning Welsh and researching the history of Wales, fictional in the sense that the blog will also contain fictional storylines about sword-swallowing, Morse code, and other fun things. While there will be a strictly academic portion of it, the main feature of the blog will be the daily hybrid posts, which will follow the structure of Moby Dick extremely loosely. The goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of Wales's history (with an emphasis on recent history and Welsh independence movements) and examine how that history is intertwined with the history of the Welsh language, as well as to learn the language in a fun and creative way.

FINAL PROJECT

Sabrina Stone: Spinning a Web

When I was young, my first “pet” was a little spider I caught and kept in a glass jar. I kept him for about a week before my parents told me it was time to let him go (four-year-old me did not realize spiders did not, in fact, live off of grass), and when he was released, he left behind a gift for me. In the jar was the makings of a beautiful, intricate web. While he had been kept locked up in the confined space, he created. Quarantine has felt a bit like being locked up in a glass jar. While quarantine during this COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on several aspects of life, I have taken this opportunity of time in isolation to do what makes me happy. My choice of escapism is in the creative realm and I have been drawing, editing, and creating non-stop since March. I have created over ten animations, completed commissions, practiced photography with a small business in LA, and started producing YouTube videos. I am very fortunate to say that this time during the pandemic has allowed me to grow as an artist. My project will be a website that showcases all of the pieces I have made during quarantine. It will be an interactive portfolio where the visitor can explore my different mediums including animations, digital drawings, photography, 3D modeling, etc. I want to construct this website to look like an elegant spiderweb that strings together all of my creations.

FINAL PROJECT

Anya Zimmerman-Smith: Style, Function, & Fabrication: Ancient Greek, Roman, & Byzantine Jewelry

This passion project is an exploration of ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine jewelry and metalsmithing—specifically styles, uses, and fabrication techniques. As a metalsmith myself, I’ve long had an interest in ancient jewelry. I have always wondered how it was made and if I could make it myself! I will be reading historical accounts of the culture surrounding ancient jewelry and gathering techniques used to make the most popular styles during those time periods. Using the ancient techniques I learn through my research I will attempt to recreate designs typical to each era. Some examples of what my final pieces may be are embossed coins, Roman Anima rings, pectoral ornaments, or the popular snake cuffs of the Byzantine period. The output of my project will be pictures of the jewelry I make interspersed with information I gather on history, uses, and techniques in a digital report publication. I am curious to find out how ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine jewelry generated and formed traditions, positions of status, experiences, and relationships and I’m looking forward to sharing what I learn!

FINAL PROJECT

Toluwani Roberts: Electric Feel

This winter, Toluwani hopes to become a Rockstar. After five adolescent years of playing the acoustic guitar, this winter, she will be learning the electric guitar. Her goal is to record two covers and one original song for public appreciation. Stay tuned to her musical creations and musings on her blog, toluspeaks.com.

Brandon Ruiz: Digesting the News: Being a responsible consumer of information / Entendiendo las noticias: Cómo ser un consumidor responsable de la información

Given the pandemic and the current political climate, the issue of misinformation cannot be any more prominent. The threat misinformation poses is substantial and studies have shown that less educated populations are disproportionately affected by the negative effects. This project aims to combat the prevalent issue of misinformation in my local community of Santa Ana by providing its residents with the tools necessary to be an informed consumer of information in the age of misinformation. In an era where technology advances rapidly and the cost of education rises, it is now more important than ever to encourage technological literacy and critical thinking skills. By promoting the tenant of critical thinking, questioning, this project hopes to give the residents of Santa Ana a new way to engage with material presented to them. Instead of shaming or debunking any specific claim or conspiracy theory, the project aims to provide a framework for people to ask the tough question on what it is they might read or believe. Topics to be covered include the basics of fact checking, why and how misinformation spreads, questions to ask yourself, how to read and interact with infographics, why visual data might not tell the whole story, and more. The project has an emphasis on being as accessible as possible (being available in both English and Spanish) with easy to digest information requiring little to no prior knowledge. I hope this inspires a new community of people to feel empowered, confident, and included in larger conversations about the issues we face today.

FINAL PROJECT

Sarah Ceja: Mi Querido Viejo: In Memory of Filomeno Ceja

After my grandfather passed away unexpectedly in the middle of this semester, my family and I went through some of the most difficult times that I could have ever imagined. In spite of the hardships, I found myself constantly learning new things about him, about who he was before I called him my grandpa. He was driven; he served in the Mexican army for four years, was a certified parachutist, and he immigrated to the United States before anyone in his family did. So, I decided to dedicate my passion project to acquainting myself with other versions of him, ones that I am lucky to still have access to through family. I would like to piece together a holistic profile of my grandfather, to honor his memory by documenting how much he was able to accomplish in his lifetime. After such a straining semester, I really want to give myself the time I deserve to revisit my memories of him while discovering new ones. Above all, I want to try to put into words everything that my grandfather meant to me and my family.

FINAL PROJECT

Alexis Gero: Finding Family History Through Family Artistry

For my passion project, I am learning to play the tenor guitar that’s been in my family for generations. The instrument was originally my Great Grandfather Richard’s and has been passed down to my brother and me. Unfortunately, no one in my family knows how to play, so it goes unused. A few years ago, my family discovered that the tenor guitar is a highly valuable antique made almost a century ago. We were unaware that we were holding onto something so special and it seemed like a waste that no one was able to appreciate it. This fellowship is an opportunity to reconnect with my Great Grandfather Richard and my broader family history. Up until my parents' generation, music was extremely important to my family—especially on my father’s side. Now, music will allow me to identify my family’s musical history and reignite our tradition. I couldn’t imagine a better way to reclaim this piece of my heritage than by learning and appreciating an instrument that has been cherished by so many of my relatives before me. In particular, I am learning how to play the song “26 Miles” by the Four Preps, which was my Great Grandfather Richard’s favorite song to play on this guitar. Learning to play this song will be a tribute to him.

FINAL PROJECT

Jon Joey Telebrico: The Fifth Domain: Cyberspace and the Ethical Dimension

Countries and their militaries have long defended the four domains of land, sea, air, and space. However, the evolving technological developments of the 21st century and the rise of the Internet of Things have ultimately revealed the development of a fifth domain: cyberspace. Through its use of the ethically neutral realm of big data, cyberspace raises various ethical concerns and represents a conceptual challenge to traditional notions of hegemony, privacy, and security. The recent emergence of cyberspace and its potential for ethical violations has continued to exist in the periphery of the international sphere and ultimately warrants greater attention. This paper offers a bird’s-eye view of the nuances of a domain that relies on the global transmission and exchange of information, questioning where individual rights and the dimension of ethics ought to lie as new cybersecurity threats emerge. The paper aims to both expand the notion of security to an individualistic and humanistic level while simultaneously reasserting ethics as the basis for military interactions within cyberspace. I highlight the concepts of Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and heterotopia before examining the potentially concerning cases of global internet infrastructure, digital intelligence gathering, and cyberwarfare. In all these, a humanistic and ethical framework for addressing these concerns is therefore called for.

FINAL PROJECT

Camille Forte: Ideas and Forms in Art: Stories on Love, War & Industry, and Women

My passion project consists of building an interactive online gallery of art. I will discuss 18 selected pieces of art over three weeks. Each week, I will focus on a broad theme that relates to each work’s subject matter or background. The first theme is love. From there, I explore war and industry and then women. These themes are broad, but they will allow the detailed analysis of the pieces to highlight specific issues and concepts. Within each of these themes, the art pieces will connect to the various ideas such as identity, perception, morality, mortality, change, and more. Each piece will have its own page with my commentary, background information, and other sources pertaining to its purpose or meaning. There will also be a variety of featured videos and audio interviews to supplement the discourse. The pages are intended for analysis and inquiry instead of critique. I personally choose which art to include, so the art intentionally ranges in period, style, medium, and acclaim. In addition to my analysis of others’ art, I will be making my own art. I will be drawing a series of human figures. I have no prior experience with the practice of art, so I am beginning by learning the basics. This component aims to demonstrate that creating art is accessible. The final product will be a combination of an interactive gallery of the selected art works and a gallery of my progression with the human figure.

FINAL PROJECT

Nicolas Burtson: Analyzing the Absurd: An Exploration of Existentialism

My project is designed to be an introductory exploration of reading and writing about existentialist philosophy. The project’s content will span across most of existential history, starting with earlier works from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and going towards more contemporary work like Camus and Sartre. The main text for the project is Robert C. Solomon’s textbook, Existentialism, but I will branch out for certain essays such as Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” and Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Ethics of Ambiguity.” The project also includes a brief segment on connections between modern physics and existentialism, covering Carlo Rovelli’s book on our perception of time and some of its implications, The Order of Time. The deliverable output of this project is in the form of journal style responses to each author’s writing and a small set of longer exploratory essays on the topics I find most interesting. I will also write reflection pieces on the essays based on feedback from meeting with Professor Basu. My goal in doing this project is to improve my ability to engage with philosophy writings while also exploring existentialism, a topic that I am personally interested in.

Mia Faith Almond and Aishat Jimoh: How to Love

Black women have had to face the unbearable--the unjust, without support from anyone other than ourselves. Black women have fought against gender inequality, racial injustice, and LGBTQ issues and still face the most oppression. To fight for everyone but have no group reciprocate that energy only signifies that no one cares for our group. No one listens, no one acts, no one moves. Our project is meant to be a welcoming space for Black women and a point of reflection for others on their actions toward this particular group. This project will include pieces about finding love in white America, dealing with imposter syndrome, feeling undesirable, the effects of colorism, Black men’s allyship and perpetuation, the journey of falling love with our natural hair, failure, heartbreak, and so much more. It is supposed to be an all-encompassing piece showing the complexity of Black women. Finally, this project is supposed to be a space of support from one Black woman to the next. A place where we ensure that Black women are understood, they are loved, they are protected, and they are allowed to just BE. Being able to share what one is feeling can be so liberating and to be able to hold that space would mean the world to us. As Black women we’ve experienced the struggle hands on. We know what it feels like battling all of the topics to be covered in this book.

FINAL PROJECT

Projects Funded by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies

Dri Tattersfield: Taipei Metro Quest: a narrative game about time-traveling home

I plan to create a short narrative video game set in the future exploring Taiwanese & Taiwanese American identity called Taipei Metro Quest. My premise centered around a Taiwanese-American protagonist returning to Taiwan and arriving in the far future. As they ride the Taipei Metro transit system from the airport to their grandmother’s house, they stop at several stations to shop for gifts for their family members before reaching their destination. Taiwan looks different from how they remembered it, making them nervous about their disconnect from their home country. But as they observe their surroundings out of the train windows, and as they explore each train station, they slowly realize that time may not be working the way they expected it to. To create the game, I will use the tool Bitsy, a simple game editor designed for creating “short narrative games, little vignettes, or games about being in one place and wandering around” using 8-bit pixel art (Pipkin, 2020). This project is a way to process and channel my anxieties about returning to Taiwan post-graduation and finding it different from when I left six years ago due to political, social and environmental changes, as well as navigating my multicultural identity. Beyond these specific personal motivations, I hope to create a game that touches on the broader theme of trying to find home while caught between worlds.

FINAL PROJECT

Trinity R. Gabato: The Generations that Follow: The Stories of a Vietnamese War Bride and the Army of Women She Created

This screenplay will try to understand how American military intervention in Asian countries affected the Asian women and the mixed-race children produced from these Asian survival marriages created after WWII. The film will try to understand how mixed-race identity, trauma and culture play a role in these relationships. Real stories will be collected and then compared to recent studies on mixed-race women, the history of colonization and research on Asian war brides. I hope to highlight, the different cultural norms between the ethnic parent and the westernized children which can lead to a cultural disconnect. Due to this cultural disconnect each party, the parent and the child, do not have the familial relationship that is built on the same understanding and the same cultural norms. In order to cope with the cultural disconnect from not being raised in the ethnic parent’s country, the children then reject the ethnic culture and learn how to forge their own path. The screenplay will focus on one woman who grows up in Vietnam during the 1950s and is driven to sex work to provide for her family. In order to survive in a worn torn country, she leans on an American Military man for support and provides him with a child in return. He then leaves them in Vietnam without any support and the Vietnamese woman goes to the states to look for him. She then ends up meeting a different man who is an American engineer and starts a family with him. The family they start results in three daughters who have to navigate two cultures, racism and a cultural disconnect.

FINAL PROJECT

Rukmini Banerjee: How Compromises within Early South Asian Feminism Have Affected Modern-Day Feminism in the Indian Sub-Continent: Analyzing the Relationship Between Rashsundari Devi and the Women of the Punjabi Protests

South Asian feminism is riddled with compromises in the name of progress. Considering the stringent cultural and societal roles imposed on women since the beginning of South Asian society, it has been difficult to achieve equality between genders in the subcontinent. The way early South Asian feminism was able to establish itself was by asserting that women were equal to men on the basis that they were able to successfully participate in activities that were characterized to be traditionally for men. This paper seeks to analyze this compromise within feminism and the implications it has had for contemporary South Asian feminism through the examination of the autobiography of Rashsundari Devi and the testimonies of women during the modern-day Punjabi protests. The similarities between the compromises Rashsundari made during her life in the 19th-century and the women of the Punjabi protests in the 21st-century merit exploring the factors that have caused these compromises in feminism to continue to be necessary. The culture that has necessitated these compromises as well as the effects they have had on feminism in South Asia are necessary to understand to better articulate the issues South Asian women face and how the general society and feminist movement have exacerbated them.

FINAL PROJECT

Valentina Gonzalez: Human Trafficking in the Borderland

“Human Trafficking in the Borderland” is a project that analyzes how human trafficking affects people of color and other vulnerable groups in border towns. Additionally, it considers how this violation of human rights is interwoven in the international realm, specifically because traffickers oftentimes exploit marginalized communities in multiple countries, through ports of entry in border cities. This project will study the dynamic between the US-Mexican and India-Nepal borders and their current situations in human trafficking. The purpose of comparing these areas is to highlight that human trafficking is an international issue that no country is safe from. Unless there is more done to prevent forced labor, in whatever form it comes in, this atrocity will continue to thrive in every country. I will document my research in an Instagram blog called Cruzando Las Fronteras (@projectclf), while also giving my personal insight in how the research process is progressing. My hope is that Human Trafficking in the Borderland will create a call-to-action by educating and prompting the audience to make a difference for an issue that is oftentimes forgotten, even though it is occurring all around us. The people who are most affected by trafficking are vulnerable groups who need others to be their voice when they are unable to take a stand for themselves.

FINAL PROJECT

Projects Jointly Funded by the Gould Center and the Keck Center