Aanavi Patodia

Since, I finished writing my case study, I have been wondering how I should be working on the project for the rest of the semester. I think that Jane Kenway and Claire Maxwell’s visits were very well timed for me, because it definitely gave me some ideas about how I could continue working on the project. However, it was not only Jane and Claire who helped in this process, it was also every other person who presented or even feedback too. Overall, I think that the Globally Elites Symposium was an inspiration for me and helped me to further develop ideas and bring in connections.

Jane Kenway’s lecture was amazing. I think that we are highly privileged students to listen to and get feedback from ascholar like her. Jane helped me further some parts of my argument for my case study too. She talked about how elite schools are disconnected from the outside world. This reminded me of my case study which is titled parallel lines currently, where I talk about the various parallels that are present in Everdeen School. I can add another parallel into my case study- How Everdeen School runs in parallel to the outside world. I think that this explicit pointwill add depth into my case study because so far the parallels have been about how the school functions within itself. Jane also gave us good feedback on our presentation which helped to validate the research that I have done so far.

In Claire Maxwell’s lecture, she talked about eliteness and whiteness and how they are innately connected. This sparked an interest in me because I have thought about racial issues a lot since I came to the United States. I was thinking about exploring this issue further in Everdeen School. But I was also extremely inspired by the student presentation in the symposium especially the creative / contemporary mediums section. I think that this session sparked the most interest and conversation from the audience. I have also always felt that academics at Colby lacks creativity. This section helped me to further think about my case study and how I could do something creative with it. Therefore, I have decided that I will explore my case study using photoshop and I will try and explain the parallels through an image. I think that images can be extremely powerful and accessible and I hope that I can be successful in creating one.