It is an innate sentiment of mankind to search for definition, belonging and purpose. We try to find groups to label us, activities to give our days meaning and people to find ourselves with. It is this eternal endeavor, this search for identity that brings out the beauty in life. We seldom realize how incorporative all the elements of our surroundings are to our identity. Whether it be with the physical or social environment, we are shaped by our experiences and interactions. In trying to understand what we come to uncover, we are faced with the question of what to do with our new knowledge of ourselves. In Elizabeth Kolbert’s novel, “The Sixth Extinction,” we are presented with the knowledge of our own detrimental acts against the earth.

Loss is  “The condition of being deprived or bereaved of something or someone” as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Loss is emptiness, a lack of fulfillment. This can present itself in many forms, but the most compelling is how it relates to our lack of knowledge of our history, and the history of biodiversity on the planet. When history is erased, because it is not remembered or recorded, people have no sense of how others overcame obstacles, where others came from, or a sense of legacy. People’s connection to the past has been severely severed and sometimes lost entirely.

People in upper class won’t work with others on these issues

Profit from environmental destruction, example: oil business

Can’t psychologically embrace whole world-especially communities separate from theirs

Also, poorer people can’t think past economics

Deeper racism also means young black men targeted for prison

Van Jones but doesn’t think issues through

Does he have enough knowledge of this?

Is he like Frank?

Van Jones is naïve in his thinking---?

Acknowledges that is hard to do both but says it’s harder not to

Laws in place that won’t allow the solutions to happen

Not giving a solution is part of his strategy

For my next paper I want to examine how art therapy is used by children with autism and how their work is perceived by neurotypical people. I've been watching lots of videos made by news stations about talented autistic children and I've been amazed at how often they're turned into supercrips. One example is reactions to the paintings of a five-year-old girl in the UK. Here are some of the headlines:

"Worldwide impression"

"The Miracle of Little Miss Masterpiece"

"Silent Tot's Magnificent Masterpiece"

"Autistic Toddler's Paintings Sell For Thousands" 

Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104, 3 (2002): 783-790.

Adomako Ampofo, Akosua and Signe Arnfred, Eds. "African Feminist Politics of Knowledge: Tensions, Challenges and Possibilities." Uppsala: Nordic Africa, 2009.

This blog post was written by a girl who went to high school with me and Amelia. 

http://terminalhappiness.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/i-am-gerald-ocd-and-the-harm-of-ableist-language/

For my next paper I want to focus on mental illness and the queer community. I will use the ideas brought forth by McCruer and Samuels in their articles about invisible disability. I would like to explore the intersectionaly of both of these "invisible" identities. I plan on doing online research to find personal narratives of coming out as LGBTQ and/or coming out with a mental illness. I plan on using a narrative of a queer student surviving sexual assualt at Bryn Mawr (http://www.autostraddle.com/on-being-a-queer-survivor-144496 ) in conjunction with Anne's On Being Transminded article. I will use the following primary sources from ICPR:

For my next paper, I want to take a look at academia as a disabling institution. Obviously, I'm coming from my own struggles this semester as a jumping off point, but I know that there are a lot of directions I can go--working further in the direction of my own experiences and physical disability or looking at mental disability, as in Mad at School. I'm also looking into a personal essay from a professor who has had to navigate academia as both a disabled person (I have yet to read the actual essay, so I don't know what kind) and an immigrant published in a book called The Politics of Survival in Academia: Narratives of Inequity, Resilience, and Success.

Another thing to say about that powerful NWSA conference--
all about identity, social justice, inequity, and radical social action--
is that it took place in a weird corporatized space, 
separate from the environment of the island of Puerto Rico.

So on Sunday my colleague Jody and I took a trip to the tropical rain forest,
El Yunque,  in an attempt to place ourselves where we were: