Sunrise Celebration
This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.
My research project, as of now, has no true thesis. But the overall research project is geared towards breaking down and analyzing the structure, interaction and overall presence of the Ethnically Themed Dormitories at Stanford University. I want to mainly focus on the interactions between Muwekma-Tah-Ruk (the Native American Indian Theme Dorm) and Casa Zapata (the Latino/Chicano Theme Dorm). I will mainly generate research by collecting interviews.
In all honesty, I haven't started to research my project thoroughly. I have found a mild amount of primary sources, but I haven't gotten into the meat of the research yet. However, an interesting source fell right into my lap, and I didn't even realize it. Well, until now.
Today, in the United States (and maybe the entire Western-Hemisphere) it was Columbus Day. To most in the States, Columbus day is just a nice excuse to not go to work. But for the indigenous people of the entire Western Hemisphere it was Indigenous People's Day. It is a movement to reclaim the notion of "discovery" and to come together as one oppressed group. Today was a demonstration to the world. For five hundred sixteen years, Indigenous people have survived, and will continue to survive. How does this play into the Ethnic Theme Dorms? I'm getting there.
The San Francisco Bay Area Movement, is one of particular prowess and recognition. Native people from all over the world come to show their support for the day and to demonstrate together on the streets of San Francisco. The demonstrations however, do not start on the city streets. The day starts on Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz is former prison that was reclaimed in the 1960s by Native Peoples in an effort to regain unoccupied Government lands. This became the future site of the Sunrise Celebration, every October 13th.
The Stanford American Indian Organization plays a huge role in planning the event and bringing a large presence to the celebration. This is not a light undertaking. Rousing over-worked students at three am so that they can go stand on an Island at five am in whipping winds on a freezing October morning is no easy task. But somehow, every year, Muwekma-tah-ruk manages to pull in huge numbers for this truly amazing day of celebration.
This is where my research comes into play. All of the Ethnic Theme Dorms at Stanford University (there are four of them), communicate openly and have very friendly relations. However the two dorms that are the most closely related are Muwekma and Casa Zapata. Not only on the basis of being cooperative/friend-like dorms, but also in their ethnic histories. Indigenous people from North and South American are separated only by an invisible border. This being said, it would seem that the involvement of the Latino and Chicano (Casa Zapata) student population at Stanford would be significant. But it was quite the opposite. Only two students (including myself) had any interest whatsoever in participating in this day of solidarity amongst indigenous groups. This is baffling. The Asian-American Themed Dorm (Okada) had a huge group of students attend this program.
This attendance difference, didn't strike me as pertinent until this afternoon. This would be a interesting research addition to my original plan. What was Okada's stake in this indigenous movement? Also why was Zapata so apathetic about a day that specifically impacts their ethnic group? Is this a pattern that happens yearly (...as I am new to this celebration)?
This event brought a new aspect into my research. I think that this is a quintessential moment in defining relations, not just between the dorms, but also between the two ethic groups. I am excited to have participated in this event and to have discovered this new ethnic dynamic.
Comments
Wow Austen that is awesome, I can't believe you actually did that! Were you planning on going anyway or did you choose to go because you thought it'd be helpful with your research? (just curious)
Anyway, it seems like you are off to a great start. I like that you are open and honest that you haven't really settled on a specific thesis and that you're continuing to search for academic books, journals, etc. even though you're fairly positive that most of your research will be through primary sources (friends, students, staff, etc.) here at Stanford. The fact that you are participating in these events and gaining firsthand knowledge, as well as raising new questions for your topic, proves that you are going to have much to find out about. Your topic is really intriguing to me, the Ethnic Themed Dorms idea has always been quite controversial especially at an institution like Stanford that prides itself on diversity and a large population of international students. It's interesting to me that Stanford encourages this racial separation through dorm living.
All in all, I am very excited to see where your research takes you and wish you the best of luck!
Posted by: Allison McCann | October 15, 2008 08:00 PM
Are ethnically themed dorms at Stanford about celebrating the culture, or making residents feel comfortable? If Zapata is "apathetic about a day that specifically impacts their ethnic group", then is the dorm really accomplishing the purpose Stanford intended in creating ethnically themed dorms? What was the University's motivation for creating these dorms? Was it student initiated? I agree with Allison that at times these dorms seem like a racial separation. I'd be interested to know why residents of dorms like Zapata chose to live there, if they aren't attending events like the San Francisco Bay Area Movement? I'm interested to see where you take this project, and what you uncover! Have you considered trying to find someone higher up in Housing to talk to about the ethnically themed dorms?
PS. Sweet blog post.
Posted by: Chris Schaller | October 15, 2008 11:57 PM
i think the ethnically themed dorms is a nice approach towards making the residents feel more at home.
Wait, maybe its not. I personally would love to be recognized more of a global child. I would more likely love to have many friends in the dorm from different backgrounds.
However, others might feel differently. Don't kow to what extent it would succeed.
Posted by: George | October 17, 2008 01:58 PM
Hi Austen,
What an interesting project! I'm commenting from Sydney, Australia, from my Hypertext and Postmodernism (English) class. We're having a browse around your blogs and this is a really fascinating area of research.
I am curious to know whether these ethnic "themed" dorms are compulsory for indigenous or ethnic students, or whether you can elect to participate in the segregated housing.
To me this would impact on the apathy levels of students in the dorms.
I think it would be helpful for your research to survey students on why they are a part of the segregated housing - whether this is to feel closer to their ethnic community, to share cultural commonalities with other young people, or to feel politically or socially connected to other indigenous or ethnic students.
Another interesting aspect to consider would be to examine the other support networks available to politically active indigenous students. Sydney University runs a score of clubs and societies with various themes - social, cultural, sporting, academic. These networks of socialiation and communication often promote students to be more active in other related (and unrelated) components of student life, i.e. being a part of the Koori Group (for Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander students) may link you to other networks of communication and socialisations, networks that would inform you about and encourage you to become involved in other social and political endeavours for this minority group.
My two cents of suggestion anyway.
Good luck with your project. It sounds like a really fascinating area of study and perhaps one which could promote increased political involvement from the students you interview as well.
Good luck!
Steph
Posted by: Stephanie (Sydney, Australia) | October 22, 2008 04:54 PM
Hi Austen,
What an interesting project! I'm commenting from Sydney, Australia, from my Hypertext and Postmodernism (English) class. We're having a browse around your blogs and this is a really fascinating area of research.
I am curious to know whether these ethnic "themed" dorms are compulsory for indigenous or ethnic students, or whether you can elect to participate in the segregated housing.
To me this would impact on the apathy levels of students in the dorms.
I think it would be helpful for your research to survey students on why they are a part of the segregated housing - whether this is to feel closer to their ethnic community, to share cultural commonalities with other young people, or to feel politically or socially connected to other indigenous or ethnic students.
Another interesting aspect to consider would be to examine the other support networks available to politically active indigenous students. Sydney University runs a score of clubs and societies with various themes - social, cultural, sporting, academic. These networks of socialiation and communication often promote students to be more active in other related (and unrelated) components of student life, i.e. being a part of the Koori Group (for Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander students) may link you to other networks of communication and socialisations, networks that would inform you about and encourage you to become involved in other social and political endeavours for this minority group.
My two cents of suggestion anyway.
Good luck with your project. It sounds like a really fascinating area of study and perhaps one which could promote increased political involvement from the students you interview as well.
Good luck!
Steph
Posted by: Stephanie (Sydney, Australia) | October 22, 2008 04:55 PM
Hi,
A few years ago I did a study on ethnically themed dormitories i Denmark. I was focusing on the German minorities in the southern part of Denmark. The most interesting result of the study was that did the themed dormitories have a lover "drop out" than regularly dorms, which suggest a better social integration.
Anyway it will be interesting to read the result of your project.
Anders, Denmark
Mobilt Bredbånd
Posted by: Anders Svendson | October 31, 2008 04:40 AM
Very nice project. I learned a lot.
My music blog
Posted by: Guitar | December 18, 2008 08:38 PM
This is interresting!
Posted by: Jesper | March 2, 2009 01:05 PM
We are in the military and our family moves around a lot. I think a cross cultural approach has been a good one for our children. They grow with such a wide perspective in life.
Posted by: moving quotes | April 9, 2009 06:45 AM