Now What?

By Elisha Wisdom

Out of all the prompts and quotes that we have discussed in these blogs, this one has hit the hardest. After surveying the engagement in my community of interest, and looking at the work that needs to be done, it is truly endless. Identity work is incredibly nuanced, and cultural study even more so. I feel relieved to be done with the interviews, but overwhelmed by the prospect of processing and analyzing them. I am excited to have 26 interviews in the bank, and am very eager to pore over them and see what I find. I wish I had maybe done some more observational note taking following the interviews, just to gather my thoughts on each subject, however I think listening back to them will be a good way to jog my memory.

So many opportunities lie ahead! I still have a lot of work to do in developing my capstone project, and look forward to presenting in December. I am curious about what I could turn this project into moving forward, because I believe it has a lot of potential. I also think there is a lot of interesting social activist work that could be derived from the project. One such example is using blended cultural identity as a resource for empathy. In a divided world, how do we value the stories of those with blended identities and the way they have had to process their own internal conflicts and divisions? So many directions to take this project!