Humanities News, Features, and Other Updates

What:

Please join the Humanities Department and RTC Graduate program for the Brown Bag event with Professor Andrew Fiss and RTC PhD Student Lindsay Hiltunen who is also the Michigan Tech University Archivist. The event will be held in the Petersen Library in Walker 318 at noon on October 4th. Histories from Ephemeral Documents: Researching the Difficult to Find in University Archives Researchers have a lot to learn from ephemeral documents in university archives. They present different pictures of local life than established histories, and yet as documents, they are often overlooked or misunderstood. This RTC Brown Bag encourages discussion about the value of such ephemera with short examples from RTC professor Andrew Fiss and Michigan Tech university archivist (and RTC PhD student) Lindsay Hiltunen. Fiss will present about a composition notebook from Motta Sims in the archives of Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Georgia. Ms. Sims in 1916 traveled to Spelman for a class in cooking. Her notebook’s form and content reflected the framing of cooking as scientific study, which proved important for the broader movement of home economics, yet because it’s contained in the files of a White president of the institution, the notebook could be overlooked. Hiltunen will present about the “Verna Grahek Mize – Save Lake Superior Campaign Collection” in the Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections. The collection includes advocacy posters and cards from the late 1960s and 1970s, responding to corporate communications that represented Lake Superior and the southern lake basin as unproblematically pristine. Though Verna Mize has become a local legend, the contents of the collection show a history of local environmentalism both broader and more specific than Mize’s legacy. Join these researchers for a discussion of the promises and challenges of studying archival ephemera.

Who:

Presented by Andrew Fiss and lindsay Hiltunen

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, October 4, 2024, 12:00 p.m.

Where:

The Peterson Library, Walker 318

What:

Abstract:

The “girl-method” (Mitchell, 2011) is highly valued in girlhood studies and focuses on adults working with girls to understand more about the girl experience and, hopefully, advocate for them. Typically, the focus is on teen or tween girls (McRobbie, 2007; Ringrose & Harvey, 2013; Rossie, 2015; Willett, 2005), which has provided valuable insight into the girl perspective. However, little girls, or girls ages 5-9, have not yet been heavily included in the field. As part of my dissertation project, I facilitated two focus groups with little girls to explore their perspective on the Barbie’s Youtube Vlogs—where Barbie is now an influencer—and what they think about older girlhood in relation to media made for them. In this presentation, I will explore a content analysis of the Barbie Vlogs themselves, as well as themes from the focus groups.
Speaking to girls this age can bring new insight into the figure of the girl. Even at ages 5-9, girls are forming their identity. Barbie represents a specific girlhood—a white, (upper) middle-class, can-do girl. In her vlogs, she demonstrates an interior life focused on self-empowerment and competency, engaging girls in a culture of competency rather than of leisure. Barbie’s modern role-model worthy makeover as a lifestyle influencer is an interesting dichotomy of social forces at play—the unapologetically feminine and capable character is using social media to speak directly to her viewers. My goal with this study is to explore how little girls interpret Barbie’s performance of teenage girlhood. The presentation will also include reflections on the methods, working with girls this age, and recommendations for future research.

Who:

Presented by PhD Candidate Brilynn Janckila

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, March 15 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center

What:

Abstract:

Humanities faculty Jason Archer, Scott Marratto and Alexandra Morrison will lead a Brown Bag panel discussion on agency — kicked off with three short presentations. The first will address 20th and 21st c. phenomenological philosophy that, through its rigorous descriptions of concrete lived embodied experience, challenges “mind-centered” and exclusively cognitive models of  human agency. The second will address the ways in which contemporary research in STEM ethics draws on that same phenomenological tradition to reveal the ways in which human engagement with technical objects and sociotechnical systems transform moral perception and agency. The third presentation will discuss the way in which a similar understanding of hybrid agency critically informs state-of-the-art research in Science and Technology Studies (STS), communication, and sensory studies, including human-machine communication and haptics.

Who:

Presented by Associate Professor of Philosophy Alexandra Morrison, Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Technologies Jason Archer, and Associate Professor of Philosophy Scott Maratto

All are welcome to attend!

When:

Friday, March 22 2024

Where:

Petersen Library, Walker Arts & Humanities Center