Humanities Symposium Write Up

Like most Belmont students I too attended the Maya Angelou talk, but also had the opportunity to attend the wrap-up panel and the Dave Chappelle/ Maya Angelou convocation. It was interesting to see her in these various settings. One thing I found about her personality is her willingness and ease of talking about painful experiences. Often when talking about painful experience there is a sense of anger and sadness behind the words. In the case of Dr. Angelou I was surprised by her calm attitude toward many of these subjects. While she expressed her opinion she did so in a respectful way. Rather than wanting revenge for her past grievances she wanted her audiences to learn from the mistakes. She has an attitude that we must progress as a society, together. Not necessarily as one race, or one gender, but as a people as a whole. She emphasised forgiveness and love each time I heard her speak. I admire Dr. Angelou and think she is an exceptional person. I hope to have the opportunity to see her speak live again in the future.

Mini-Ethnography

For my observation I choose to sit in the Writing Center on the second floor of the Wheeler Humanities Building. Conveniently there was a session taking place just as I walked up. A freshman first year seminar student was seeking advice on his first class paper. The writing center tutor was a graduate student working to complete her Masters Degree in English. There was a significant age gap between these two individuals and it became obvious as the session progressed.

At first the interactions between the two were awkward at best. They only focused on the paper and clearly had little in common. However as the session progressed on of the comments in the paper struck a cord with the tutor, at that moment she engaged in student in conversation and they immediately began talking about the subject. It was a little shocked at the amount of time they spent on that one subject rather than revising the paper. It seemed as if they older tutor really wanted to connect with the student. I felt that because the tutor was an adult student, coming back to college after a mid-life career change, she wanted to assimilate into the Belmont student culture and connect with those who were her "peers" per say.

She did eventually offer some good advice on the students paper. But more so than benefiting the student, the tutor seemed to have gained more out of the experience. Maybe a sense of confidence that she could find a common ground on this campus full of young and energetic college students.

Topic Idea

I am currently considering writing my paper on Nashville's MTA Bus culture. I ride the bus most days to campus and love watching the various people that get on and off each day. There are so many different people that ride the bus, each of them are different in their own way. From suits to a cow costume, you never know what you are going to see when to step up into the city bus. I have so many questions: Why do they ride the bus, do they have to, are they just making a political statement or is it the only means of transportation? I would also like to explore the past and present culture of the bus. What was it like in decades gone by (buses were a hot topic issue, epically during the civil rights movement)? How have things changed? I am looking forward to answering these questions and seeing "where the bus will take me".