By A.L.Rougier, Editor-in-Chief and Creative DirectorSince our official launch in October 2016, A Home @ The End of The World—or as we loving refer to it, ‘the Zine’, has humbly started to become what we’ve envisioned from its conception. We’ve sincerely attempted to execute everything we’ve listed in our mission statement and I can say with confidence, as Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief, we’ve done that. MembershipThis month we welcomed six new Student Staff Writers: Giselle Ramirez, Nelson Heras, Clarence Nell-Colon, Michelle Bravo, Brianna Damms and Jordan Delesparra. http://ahomeattheendoftheworld.weebly.com/student-staff-writers.html and one Contributing Writer: Jen Yan (Rachel) Wong http://ahomeattheendoftheworld.weebly.com/contributorsopinion-editorials-op-eds.html Instagram/ Café CandidsThanks to Amerra Bukhari for curating our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/ahomeattheendoftheworld/ Don't forget you can follow our IG page if you want to remain up-to-date on the latest articles, publications, Anthropology Cafés and other activities we may publicize. You can also keep abreast by checking our monthly Events Calendar: http://ahomeattheendoftheworld.weebly.com/calendar.html Thanks to Linda Cheriyan & Michele Bukhari for being our resident photographers: http://ahomeattheendoftheworld.weebly.com/cafeacute-candids.html Thanks to Brenda Almaraz and Michelle Sencion for continuously updating and improving the navigation and interface of our online presence. Without this graphic design duo, the Zine would not be possible. Thanks to Professors Lee and McDonald for their Anthropology Café presentations. Thanks to Professors Snajdr, Waterston, Marcus, Lessinger, Hussain, McDonald, and Trinch for their participation in the Annual Half-Day Conference, held on March 16th. Thanks to Student Staff Writers: Kevin Tran, Veeana Singh, Connor Gilligan, Joey Butts Jr., Maksuder Rahaman, Ryan Singh & Samantha Sheets for their participation and courageous presentations during the conference. FINEST ProjectOn Wednesday May 4th, our very own Ummer Ali was honoured in the President's Office for his publication in John Jay’s Finest Project. The Finest publication recognises outstanding student writing submitted by a faculty member. President Jeremy Travis and Provost Jane Bowers were both there to salute the students and to congratulate them in front of their family members. It is also the finale for both Travis and Bowers at John Jay College. In Ummer’s case, he took Urban Anthropology during the winter of 2016 with Professor Rougier (Anthropology Department) who submitted Ummer’s final paper for review by the Finest editors. In his essay, Ummer referenced Professor Lessinger’s (Anthropology Department) classic ethnography From the Ganges to the Hudson: Indian Immigrants in New York City. Congrats to Ummer and the Anthropology Department—well done! New ProjectsJune and July, will be a moment of rest for the writers; however, for the photographers, painters and artists, we are in the process of putting together an Artist Café. Remember, the Zine is a collective group of writers, artists, photographers, painters, and poets who love Anthropology—and this is why the Zine and the Anthropology Café were created. The idea of a café, a monthly meeting for face-to-face discussions, was intended to create community—a physical and social space whereby students who may feel inhibited to write might nevertheless come to discuss issues and meet others—including those not like themselves. We would like to feature poetry readings, music, book releases/launches and guest speakers, writing workshops, film screening, art exhibits and other forms of artistic expression. This is a space where majors and minors of anthropology can get to know each other and share in their fieldwork and archival research. It is a space for Professors to try out ideas for their next book, research proposals, field notes, or ethnographic projects. There will be a new section to A Home @ The End Of The World called Artist-in-Residence. This addition to the Zine speaks to its prolific nature and will focus on artistic anthropological endeavours in varied forms—painting, drawing, photography, film, woodwork, crafting, illustration, architecture and design. This space will be operated and curated, by members of the Zine: Cindy, Linda, Connor, Kevin, Michele & Leslie. They will use this summer to get the project off the ground and prepare for the first show in the fall. Students will be able to showcase their own work in a curated space (both internally at John Jay College and externally, at a location in downtown Manhattan) with a focus on the humanities as an art form. In addition, this fall, the Zine will be focused on visibility throughout the John Jay College community and CUNY at-large. We’ll use the summer to strategize and envision new ways to make the collective visible, accessible and welcoming. We’ll implement methods to use media platforms more effectively to ensure that the collective remains abreast with the latest trends in communication and social navigation. Our aim is to remain innovative, relevant and anthropologically aware as a site and as a collective. American Anthropology Association (Annual Meeting in D.C.)This year marks the second and final year that our very own Alisse Waterston holds the title of President of the American Anthropology Association. As a student, to have a professor in your department during your tenure as an undergraduate, who also holds the presidential role at the AAA, is like a unicorn jumping over an eclipse—almost impossible! The Student Staff Writers are thrilled at the prospect of attending and also writing about their experience at this Mecca-for-Anthropologists. With this extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the students are thinking of applying for travel grants to attend and to witness the Presidential Speech in November. This initiative will be finalized in the summer. Physical CopiesMonthly copies will be unveiled this fall in a glossy sheen that will bring ‘our home to your home’, in a tangible exchange of the written word, with artistic expression and colourful commentary. Being able to display copies of the Zine and to have it live in the real world and not just online will be a huge accomplishment. It has been one of the Zine’s missions—distribution to New Yorkers and beyond. There is nothing like holding a copy of your favourite magazine in your hands to take with you on a train ride, a flight, or to the beach or share with your friends over the kitchen table whilst sipping hot cocoa. But most of all, it will be something for student writers to take home to their families so that their work can live in the space where their talents were nourished—at home. Thank You NotesAs the year comes to a close, I would like to thank a few people but before I do, I would like to mention a quote by Pulitzer Prize-winner and Nobel Prize nominee Edith Wharton: “True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.” There was a vision and these individuals, who I will list, have all fostered and cultivated this vision of a home, at the end of the world. In its construction and foundational formatting, these individuals have tirelessly worked to ensure a safe abode for the Student Staff Writers to rest their hearts and minds.
Thanks to Joanie Ward for her assistance on various projects or guiding us to the correct person(s) of interest. Thanks to Professors Anru Lee, Avram Bornstein & Emily Anne McDonald for always being kind and thoughtful. Thanks to the Executive Editorial Board (EEB) for your dedication and rigour: Anthony Marcus, Shonna Trinch, Edward Snajdr, Johanna Lessinger, Alisse Waterston and Ric Curtis. Your eyes, your ears, your heart and your compassion have guided this collective from day one. Thank you to pieces. Thanks to everyone who supported the idea from the start, especially, the Chair of the Anthropology Department, Anthony Marcus. This would not be possible without you and your sustained support, Sir. Thank you, millions. To the Zinesters, keep on rockin’! You are the pillar upon which you stand, as a collective. The last Anthropology Cafe of the Academic Year was held on Thursday May 11, see photos here: http://ahomeattheendoftheworld.weebly.com/cafeacute-candids.html Happy summer vacation, y’all, Sunsets & Sailboats! A.L.R
0 Comments
Dear Students, Colleagues, Alums and Friends,
Greetings once again from room 9.63.12. I cannot believe how quickly the semester has flown by. Some of you may not have this sense of course. I have witnessed several of our seniors in the Culture and Deviance Studies program counting the days until graduation - and complaining that time is not moving fast enough! Since we understand through our anthropological lens that many things are relative in the course of experience, structure, positionality and intersectionality, the theme of my notes this month are on the different perspectives that make up some recent events in our program. Department Highlights Profs. Shonna Trinch and Barbara Cassidy's Seeing Rape program broke records for student events at John Jay. Over 1000 students attended the three performances at the Gerald Lynch Theater in April. I have been reviewing the feedback assignments from students in my three courses, and I am impressed at the variety and range of interpretations that our John Jay undergrads have contributed as part of this important campus-wide experience. My ANT 450 capstone students connected and compared the student plays with the work of anthropologist Peggy Sanday (author of the ethnography, Fraternity Gang Rape), considering how social and cultural norms can be both inverted and critiqued in certain gendered contexts, such as a college fraternity, or the social media experience of Tinder. My ANT 325 Field Methods students focused their papers on how they observed the plays as social and cultural performance. Some noted the performative behavior of audience members as they experienced the controversial material from their seats. Others analyzed the interactional dynamics of the audience amongst each other, highlighting the varying norms and transgressions of everyday students groups together for a common purpose. And my ANT 101 students contemplated the specific performances that they thought were most powerful at taking down (or upholding and reinforcing) certain gendered, classed, and ethnicized norms of American culture. These were all very different endeavors, with very different perspectives on the same thing. Thanks to everyone who participated in this event! Teaching Note Please join us in welcoming two instructors who will be teaching courses in our program in the fall: Eliza Jane Darling, anthropologist and activist, will be teaching a new anthropology course ANT 380 Special Topics in Anthropology: Political Ecology, in the fall term (2017). This course will be offered online. Prof. Darling has published a really insightful article about rural gentrification title "The City in the Country: Wilderness Gentrification and the Rent Gap." You can find in the journal Environment and Planning A 37.6 (2005), pp. 1015-1032. Prof. Miryam Nacimiento will be teaching ANT 317 Anthropology of Development, also in the fall term (2017). Prof. Nacimiento has studied the development implications of the war on drugs and has a Master's degree in Public Policy at the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands Students on the Move Last newsletter I noted a few recent graduates from our CDS program. It was clear from their diverse professional endeavors that the skills and training they received by majoring in Culture and Deviance Studies provides a solid foundation on which to pursue a variety of careers and further study. But I forgot to mention that John Jay's very own Registrar, Daniel Matos, who has been heading the Registrar's Office since January 2016, majored in CDS (under the older name Deviant Behavior and Social Control). Daniel previously served as University Vice President for Student Services at American University of Antigua, Registrar at the University of Medicine and Health Services in St. Kitts, among other positions. He was also Assistant Registrar at John Jay for six years. His success working in the field of higher ed demonstrates the versatility and value of a bachelor's degree in the liberal arts and sciences and specifically how our program's focus on human social systems, cultural norms and conflicts can prepare students for any number of careers in public and institutional service. Major Developments As I report to you last newsletter (February 2017), the CDS program is moving forward with our efforts to improve our core courses and develop new offerings. Prof. Hanna Lessinger and I submitted our revised version of ANT 325 Ethnographic Field Methods and a new course ANT 3XX called Writing for a Multicultural Work, to the Undergraduate Curriculum and Standards Committee (UCASC). We will keep you posted about the upcoming revisions we are proposing to both the CDS and the Anthropology majors. Congratulations! Last but not least, May 31st is Commencement. This celebration will be held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens. The Culture and Deviance Studies graduates will be attending the second ceremony - which is scheduled for 3:30 PM. We are all very proud of our graduating seniors! Hope your semester ends on a successful note! Best Always, Ed Snajdr Coordinator, Culture and Deviance Studies Major Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology |