Our preliminary research consists of the existing work on the subject of cultural appropriation at Bowdoin:
Zabala Thesis: Dana is reading this article for the first time and will summarize it in her data log. I read this paper last semester in the Diversity in Higher Education seminar. It is widely regarded as the preeminent research on the subject of cultural appropriation at Bowdoin. This paper details the history of cultural bias at Bowdoin, and provides anecdotal responses from students to the recent parties. Most other students who have produced work on the subject cite this paper.
Weiss Paper: Kayli Weiss wrote a research paper titled, “Influence of Campus Controversies on Campus Climate at Bowdoin College” for the Diversity in Higher Education seminar in Fall 2017. She organizes anecdotes from seniors of varying racial identities about the events of the 2015/2016 academic year, namely the Gangster Party and the Tequila Party. Weiss uses data collected from interviews only with the Class of 2018 and situates the evidence within concepts like the diversity bargain (Warikoo 2016) and walls of whiteness (Brunsma et al. 2013). The former refers to how institutions craft the demographics of a campus to reach certain moral aesthetics. The latter gives insight on why white students often ignore and perpetuate racial division through self-segregation and institutional habitus.
Weiss’ research explores the range of opinions about the administrative and student responses. She focuses on how social media apps like Yik Yak contributed to widespread distrust among students and “showcased the divisiveness and tension occurring in the campus climate” (2017:12). **
This paper provided deeper insights to the opinions of seniors, but not other students. Weiss points out that “there needs to be institutional structures in place to help foster inclusivity and interaction among students” (24), but does not offer specific suggestions for what this may look like.
** My roommates Cory Alini and Rachel Zeffren briefly worked on a computer science project, to create an anonymous social media platform that avoided the pitfalls of Yik Yak in terms of social disruption.
Opinions:
Kevin Hernandez, Justin Weathers, and Nora Cullen have all recently contributed op-eds to the Orient about these events and their own experiences of them. They collectively ask for more dialogue among students and invite the reader to meet with them in person for a dialogue.
Safiya Osei’s op-ed in this week’s Orient issue (03/30/2018) is titled “Dear seniors: will you condemn us to repeat history?” This is the first article I’ve seen from an underclass student. She echoes the fear that appears in both Zabala’s and Weiss’ papers: once the current class of seniors graduate, the college will forget its past and culturally insensitive events will continue. I am meeting with Osei this coming week to listen to her perspective and her suggestions for how to educate younger students on this history. Hopefully this will give insights about how to engage wider audiences who do not have easy access to the research or do not understand the significance of the work.
Next Steps: This research will likely be the base of our literature review. The research and the researchers are easy to access. I plan on contacting Pamela in the next few weeks to hear her thoughts on potential solutions. I also want to speak to the authors of the recent op-eds about the same thing. Kayli Weiss shared her extensive spreadsheets with all of her interview data, so that may be helpful later on. I think that is important that we quickly figure out the structure of our own research and how it might contribute to what already exists. It is challenging to find what is really needed right now to progress the discourse.
Parker,
You seem to have a strong grasp on how students have engaged the dialogue on these issues on campus. I cannot also tell you how gratifying it is that Pamela’s thesis has such longevity on campus.
Your discussion already highlights one move toward a solution worthy of emphasis: how do we keep institutional memory alive when students cycle in and out. Cracksgiving is a mere memory for our first and second years. The Tequila and Gangsta Parties will likely die out once seniors graduate (unless faculty continue to assign Pamela’s thesis), and as Dana has already experience, there has been an active effort for students, parents and administrators to move past it. There is perhaps even a fear that, now we have a new VP for Diversity of Inclusion who lacks the institutional memory, it will likely take another incident before these dialogues arise again.
So I think one question worthy asking is considering productive ways to keep the institutional memory of these events alive for students. Even if we dismiss these activities in the annals of history, are there lessons that can become part of our curriculum? Should students be educated on the history of Bowdoin’s racial and racist past? It might be one solution worth considering given that so many institutions have increasingly been forced to confront their racial legacies.
Keep up the great work!! I look forward to what is next.