December 11, 2016 - 21:53
This project was very interesting and I felt that I found out a lot about the school that I had previously never even thought about. From here I may want to look into interacting with the Pensby Center more often, especially since I know that the people there are amazing. In addition, I think that there should be some more advertisement about student activism (besides within clubs) for things not only in BMC but in our communities and countries.
I will definitely share this information with the people we interviewed, but I also believe that some of this information should be shown to K. Cassidy.
I definitely want to explore more of the hidden aspects of my contact zone. While there is a lot of visible change occurring at the school, such as the LGBTQIA+ awareness month, I don't believe the full extent of the contact zone is visible to everyone. In addition, I think it would be interesting to think about possibly advertising that the school is a safe haven for LGBTQIA+. While in the current political atmosphere it could be dangerous, it would also possibly play as a safe haven for those who need it. In addition, it would be interesting to connect our LGBTQIA+ clubs with other school's clubs (maybe starting with the BiCo and TriCo and then extending out to the sister colleges) and to each other as well. For example, while the experiences of those in the Rainbow Alliance and Zami are very different, I believe it's important for both sides to hear the experiences of those in their community.
The range of contacts zones truly reflected how contact zones intermingle and intertwine. For example, the concept of the Bryn Mawr Bubble definitely emerged in my research. This was evident in the archival information of how many of the open lesbians at Bryn Mawr in the 1980s acknowledged that Bryn Mawr was so accepting that it is almost deceiving to the Mawrters about the realities of the outside world. In addition, other students termed the bubble as suffocating.
The way that the different projects interlinked shows how there can be a connection between pretty much anything. In our conclusion, we stated how it takes both the combined force of the students and the institution to make real change. In this, we can see both how success reveals the power of determination and how failure shows the complexities of social issues. In both these cases, we should reflect back on how change occurs at our school and see what we can change, both about ourselves and our institution, to make change happen more often and become more accumulating for everyone.