Class Project Proposal
Sabrina Momtaz
Class Project Proposal
For our class project, I think we should have a theme of interaction with a nationality. It will be more focused on actually connecting with the group instead of research based. For the national group itself I suggest choosing a nationality that largely impacts city life, but something we haven’t covered in great detail, like the Chinese or Indian immigrants. Then the class can split into groups and focus on various aspects of that nationality. Some things of interest are ethnic groups present within the nation, where these groups settled in NYC, their food, how different regions prepare similar dishes, their religious and cultural holidays, their ethnic clothes and culture, their music, and how all of it was adapted to fit the busy metropolis of NYC and how NYC adapted to their presence. As each group works on their parts, they should video their experiences and post clips of it on the site, in addition to pictures and other media. The videos will make it relatable and a better experience for the groups that didn’t work on that part. For example, the people who are in charge of food can video their reactions to trying that food the first time and we can all see what it was like and then people can volunteer to bring in food on the presentation day, if we have one, so everyone will get to try the foods. People doing walking tours can edit the clips so that the viewers can all see what they saw.
To add more depth into the project, we can observe/interview 1st and 2nd generation immigrants to see how much New York has impacted their views of their original roots. In our neighborhood projects, we didn’t talk to any immigrants of the younger generation, either first generation college students or students who live here now with a student visa, so I think it will be interesting to how their views differ from those of their elders. We can also look into how the group assimilates into New York society and/or if they stick strictly to their communities.
The general idea is to have a neighborhood project, but bigger and more fun the individual projects. The look of the site would be like tourist sites, where we showcase the best and not-so-best of a culture so visitors to the site would know exactly what to expect if they encounter a place of that nationality. In my opinion, if we try to focus on a topic that affects a lot of ethnic groups, they project may get scattered and not feel like a group contributed presentation. If we pick one ethnic/national group then even if we all do our individual tasks, in the end, it will all be under one common heading, so it will feel more united.
