Istifaa Ahmed
'‘mY [blOOd] bOdY’
Ethnic Studies 147AC
Istifaa’s research paper, entitled ‘mY [blOOd] bOdY,’ is an analysis of an untitled performance piece by African-American artist Tameka Norris. In this particular piece, the artist is cutting her tongue and as Istifaa describes “dragging it deliberately across the gallery wall, replacing both brush and paint with her mouth and blood and saliva as her medium...Norris leaves her blood and wounds open for us, if we dare to engage in such intimate healing insurgence from violence.” Istifaa’s paper contextualizes the socially and historically silenced rape culture traceable to the racialized gendered logic that enslaved women endured in both private and public spaces. She notes the presence of transgenerational memory and ongoing legacy of slavery’s violence, using this research to scaffold her discussion of Norris’ shockingly moving performance piece.
Team EmbrACES: Eli Moreno, Katherine Lazalde, Marie Lim, Selena Kim
‘ACES: An Evaluation’
Education 190AC
In Fall 2015, Team EmbrACES evaluated the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program, a program in which students partner with community organizations to work on social justice issues within their AC course. The team carried out their evaluation by collecting, organizing and analyzing data from student survey responses for 5 consecutive semesters from a variety of disciplines and class sizes. The research provided both recommendations for the AC and ACES program, and concrete examples of how ACES benefits the development of students’ critical thinking and commitment to civic engagement,whilst also providing hearty realism as to the possible extent of creating active and engaged citizenship in higher education curriculum.
