Topic: I am studying the treatment of women in zones of conflict

Question: because I want to determine the relationship between biological characteristics/functions, representations of bodies, and gender preconceptions/power roles

Significance: in order to help my reader/audience understand how to empower themselves and others by empathizing across cultural and gender differences.

There are vast resources available on women's roles and rights in zones of conflict, many of which focus on Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, and the Sudan, which conveniently include a lot of clashing between Muslim and non-Muslim belief systems. As I have explored this literature, I have found that the experiences of women in conflict-torn and peaceful zones, as well as both Muslim and non-Muslim communities, are complex. Women in rigid gender roles with strict, conservative ways of dressing are likely to experience less discomfort associated with negotiating sexualized assumptions and gender boundaries, though they may feel compromised in terms of the sexual, expressive, and career choices they are allowed to make. Likewise, women in conflict zones are likely to experience compromised sexual safety, sometimes being sexual assaulted by opposition forces, sometimes less safe environments in refugee camps. They are also likely to experience reinforced traditional gender roles, as they may not be allowed to fight in conflicts or they may be perceived as weak and in need of protection. On the contrary, war and scarcity of both resources and labor may necessitate greater liberties as far as work, transportation, and social independence.

As I get further into this research and I can no longer stand on my soapbox about women's rights and justice, I am wondering what is the point? Why would I do a project on this topics as a dancer, technologist, artist, and female? I am not an anthropologist, nor a political scientist, nor a scholar of religion or gender, so why do I care? I care because I care about justice, and I want to fight for marginalized women. But what does it look like for women not to be marginalized? Are we just trading one form of marginalization for another? Is there a lesser of two evils in this case?

I am interested in gender roles and power struggles because I believe the systems of oppression are so deeply ingrained in our social structures and experiences that it is impossible for one group to fully understand the perspective of another. I believe that men (and women) are often unaware of misogynistic comments that they make. At the same time, I believe that feminists often push too far against gender discrimination, preferring to eliminate the concepts of gender altogether. While I understand that individuals can embody characteristics typically associated with both genders, I find the gender conceptions biologically relevant and useful to discuss.

So what am I interested in? I want to dissect the relationships between power structures and traditionally defined gender identities. I believe that conflict highlights both biological differences and equivalent strength and resilience between male and female bodies. I believe that conflict also creates harsh, sensory experiences for both male and female bodies, of which safety is compromised in different ways that are not fully understood by persons of the opposite gender.

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Topic: I am studying the migrant crisis in Europe.

Question: because I want to examine the process of reconciling the needs of others with our own

Significance: in order to help my reader/audience understand how to better empathize with people of different backgrounds and behave more humanely without compromising their own needs.

As I research the migrant crisis further, it is becoming clear that my interest is not related to the politics or the economics of the situation (that was really never in question). I am interested in understanding how we prioritize and balance the needs of others with our own needs when they conflict. I believe that our ability to empathize with others determines how we prioritize their needs relative to our own. The level of empathy that we experience for other people seems to depend on how strongly we identify with them ourselves. We can more easily identify with physical people than with their representations, and we identify more easily with more human/intimate representations that distant, abstract representations.

The migrant crisis in Europe serves as a case study for examining empathy and need management in the context of scarcity of resources between two visually and culturally different groups. These issues are increasingly relevant at our time of globalization and abstract forms of human communication and representation. When we are constantly exposed to representations of others who may or may not be suffering, how do we maintain sensitive and empathetic to the needs of other bodies? How do we remember that those bodies are other people? How do we stay conscious of the people typing into the other side of the screen?

This topic also relates to aesthetic concerns I have as an artist: I find myself torn between the interactivity and fantasy of abstract aesthetics and the visceral nature of real life (or at least video of it). I generally feel compelled to choose between the two because the risk of creating bad work in the overlapping space is too great. As technologists, we strive to improve the representation of reality through digital media, and we are making great progress, but why not just live in reality? It is important to remember to use technology to provide access to information, imagination, and experiences that are not otherwise attainable, but how do we gauge the necessity of what technology is bringing to a situation. How do we manage the needs of a project with the capabilities of technology. Again, it is all about priorities.

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Topic: I am studying the movement based coping mechanisms for ASDs

Question: because I want to find out how movement can help people with Autism Spectrum Disorders cope

Significance: in order to help my reader/audience understand the experience of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their families, as well as how to help them.

Last week, I interviewed Beth Rosenberg of the NYU Ability Lab. She runs Tech Kids Unlimited, which serves a lot of children with Autism. She also has a son with an Autism Spectrum Disorder who is now 17. She painted a complex portrait of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Her son wants to fit into her neurotypical world. She wants her son to fit into her neurotypical world. Repetitive movements like shaking hands prevent him from visually making sense with his environment. Beth shared with me that she worked with her son on this behavior, partly to help him fit in and partly because she found the behavior annoying. She recalled an instance in which she reminded her son "Hands down," and he reminded her that the movement was "involuntary." The hand-shaking starts involuntarily in response to excitement, but Jack is able to stop the movement when he pays attention to it.

My current level of understanding is that these repetitive movements are a part of an attempt to ground oneself with sensory feedback. Sensory integration disorders exist in the part of the brain that filters and pieces together all of the bits of information coming into the brain to determine a coherent understanding of external reality. A person with a sensory integration disorder might not be able to filter out bits of irrelevant information the way a neurotypical person can, so background noises or smells may be particularly bothersome. Light touch may also be irritating to a person with an SID, but strong, hard touches may be soothing. Similarly, proprioceptive and equiibrioceptive information, movement, can be pleasurable and calming to a person with an SID. It seems this strong feedback helps a person to better orient oneself within his or her surroundings. This is the idea behind sensory integration therapy and gyms: if you experience more sensory information, you can reinforce the correct neural pathways to understand your surroundings, alleviating the sensory integration disorder.

I wonder about simulated movement and haptic feedback as applied to ASDs. I will continue to learn about how sensory integration therapies work. I will also read more about Rosalind Picard's work at MIT Media Lab with ASDs and movement and emotions, as well as haptic feedback. It may be possible to make a wearable device that provides the necessary sensory information to feel calm and grounded in a neurotypical world. Or it may be possible to create some sort of empathizing device to help neurotypical people understand the struggle of the ASD.

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