5 Inspiring Projects

1. Anti-Intellectualism vs. Intellectualism: One Student's Response

Inspired by an online news outlet's research of anti-intellectualism in American society, this undertaking was intended to further my own understanding of the concept of intellectualism and anti-intellectualism and how well it is understood by the masses. Last semester, I took a gender studies class in which one of the assigned texts was a book on Greek Life, and an interesting point that I gleaned from that is that many researchers seek merely to reaffirm a point that they already believe to be universally true.

The foundation of this project, after a great deal of research was a set of definitions. For intellectualism, it was "to have the power to acquire, understand, and reorganize knowledge according to a speculative or practical interest in a particular pursued topic explored via moral and ethical means." This is when things got a little more interesting. One particular researcher by the name of Dr. Morton White made a distinction between an anti-intellectualist and an anti-intellectual. "The former, the anti-intellectualist, is hostile to the doctrine of intellectualism. The latter, the anti-intellectual, is hostile to the intellectuals."

themselves."

I enjoyed taking this broad topic and condensing it in a way that not only made more sense to me, but also in a way that makes it much more accessible to other readers. I could definitely have explored this topic further and in more detail, and would be eager to do so in another format. It's a broad topic, one that is taken for granted and misused, but not often discussed. Or rather, it is discussed, but not referred to by that name, so it's difficult to pick out applications thereof.

2.) In Which Romanticism Coincides with Literature

In Dr. Partain's History of Music: Ancient-Baroque class, there was one assignment that involved a piece not unlike French "heroic" literature where the main protagonists have no flaw whatsoever. However, instead of there being a knight or a gallant figure, the main character was a musical composer of the Romantic Era. Wilhelm Heinrich Wakenroder's "The Romantic and Musical Life of the Musician Joseph Berglinger" concerned a fictional ideal listener and composer of the music of the late seventeenth century.

While a literary analysis, this project required a working knowledge of stylistic elements of Romantic composition. More importantly, however, there was the relationship between the composer and the listener and the task of a listener during a performance to take into account. Joseph Berglinger's first experiences with music in a performance hall (such as it was) was largely an ephemeral experience, very emotional, very spiritual, and he was inspired to create the same experiences for his listeners. In one part of his story, he becomes agitated and finds that he can't find the will to compose for such a wide audience. So, he directed his abilities to the few that understood the sort of person he was, and as such the concept of the "secret listener" is introduced. Because of the emotional nature of Romantic Era pieces, there was an idea that music in general was created solely for those who truly understood the depth of what the composer was feeling when they wrote it aka the "secret meaning."

I knew when I chose this prompt to work with [among the three that were available to me] that I would have the opportunity to combine multiple disciplines that I enjoyed. As a music minor with a love of literature, this was quite perfect. I like being able to combine disciplines in such a way that are blended rather than juxtaposed with one another (if that makes sense). When thinking about what my upcoming project will be, this is definitely a strength that I wish to make use of even beyond this class.

3. 2015 Nigeria Oil and Gas Trade and Investment Forum Speakers

Going along with discovering my strengths, there was one that was essentially thrust upon me when I was working with The Borgen Project. With the goal of spreading awareness of and combating global poverty, part of my job was to contribute accessible writing like this.

Here I'm talking about something of great importance, oil and gas as resources and efforts to find more eco-friendly solutions. From there, I'm narrowing it down to the speakers at this forum and giving a program-length paragraph on their credibility. The categories I was generally limited to were Optimistic News and Science and Technology, and this was to fall under Optimistic News. I also had to use the right language to advertise the mission of the forum, advertising The Borgen Project by extension. Though I didn't always agree with what I had to write about (this not included), it was the experience of it that mattered. Here again, like my piece on intellectualism, I'm taking a larger concept and breaking it down into something that is accessible to a wider audience and not just the select few who attended this forum.

4. FYRS Final Paper

As a first year, I started with a double major in music and mathematics. So, for my FYRS project, I combined the two and ultimately added a third. I applied different mathematical sequences like The Fibonacci Sequence to musical composition, showed how it was also used to create the instruments that spawn those compositions, and actually built a synthesizer of my own and used it for a case study. I combined music, mathematics, and a type of science.

Not only am I trying to, once again, make broad and complex concepts simple and accessible, but I am conducting an experiment to ask the timeless question of "What is Music?" What ended up happening with this project ended up being things building up on themselves rather than my constantly tying things back to one idea.

This is something that I talk a lot about in The Writing Center when I'm working with someone else, I tell people that they should keep finding ways to tie each of their subtopics back to their main idea to find a sense of unity in their papers. I actually have this problem. I will ramble, and all of my concepts and ideas will build up on one another because I keep finding ways to tie things to other things. While this served my purpose well in this paper, it can certainly be a vice, which is something that I need to remember as I continue with this kind of work.

5. Doctor Who Article Series

It's difficult for me to talk about things that inspire me without talking about my favorite form of media, the one that (in my opinion) made the most significant impact on British television. Writing for ULoop, I have plenty of flexibility when it comes to what I'm writing and how I'm composing it. Also, it's fun to be able to talk for a long time about one's favorite show.

As I was beginning this, I was able to learn about the interesting and complicated lives of these actors (many of them Shakespearean), how the BBC Radiophonic Workshop gained popularity for their advances in technology in music with the Doctor Who theme, and just how important this show is in the history of the media. The idea was that it never had the best special effects; the focus was on the writing and the acting (say what you will about either).

Something else I did, as a unique component to my series, was I chose an episode whose messages felt timeless and applicable, created images that featured quotes from that episode, and showed how timeless and applicable they were. I even learned that (and this is in the second part of my series) current views on gun control in the US were voiced in the early episodes. That view being [paraphrased]: "You are a sensible and ethical person, therefore I trust you to have this gun. I am giving it to you because I do not think that you will use it recklessly."

Being able to find these important messages makes me want to turn this series into a bigger project. So, this is an idea that I've been thinking about and working with as well.