Beaker and Brush Discussion
Join us at the Aster Café for an identity-related Beaker and Brush discussion, a program developed by the Science Museum as a forum for bringing together an artist and a scientist to explore topics from the perspective of both disciplines. The speakers will discuss aspects of identity such as "How is identity formed psychologically, and how does what we see form our opinions of others’ identity?" Log on to the "Beaker and Brush" Buzz blog before and after the event to post questions and continue the discussion.
Beaker and Brush: Identity
Monday November 21st, 6:30-8:30p.m.
Aster Café
125 SE Main Street
Minneapolis
Speakers: Wing Young Hui, Photographer and Moin Syed, Ph.D in Developmental Psychology
Wing Young Huie has conducted hundreds of lectures and workshops throughout the country and internationally (including K-12 classrooms, colleges, museums, non-profits, and corporations) with his many photographic projects that reflect America’s dizzying and changing cultural landscape; providing a collective window and mirror of the them who are really us.
Moin Syed, a developmental psychologist with a primary appointment in the Counseling Psychology program and secondary affiliation in the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavioral Genetics program. He is broadly interested in how adolescents and young adults from diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds weave together their multiple identities to lead healthy, productive, and purposeful lives.
Hello Experimonthers! My name is Julia, and I work at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Margaret and I will be the community hosts of the Beaker and Brush Discussion with Wing Young Huie and Moin Syed. We're getting pretty dang excited for this event. In the meantime, let's use this forum to talk about our different experiences with ethnic identity growing up.
Questions:
Did you grow up in a place with a lot of diversity, or not very much diversity at all? How do you think that affected your understanding of other cultures?
I grew up in a neighborhood and attended public schools with lots of diversity. There was racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. I learned about many different cultures when classmates would share celebrations important to them. I ate many different types of food and heard different languages spoken when I visited my friends houses. I always thought that I had a wide base of cultural understanding in my community.
When I went away to college I attended a school where, just like me, most students were white and middle class. However, many students came from small, homogonous communities. I ran into a lot of racism, classism, and homophobia. Even though I grew up around a lot of diversity, I was never exposed to much conflict. So it became very difficult in college to know how to react to a culture so unwelcoming of diversity.
Due to my diverse experiences there were many cultures with which I felt comfortable. However, I learned that mainstream white, middle class American culture was a mystery to me.
Thanks for your perspective, joyousduck. It made me ponder of my own high school experience. I went to a boarding school with a relatively diverse group of students from all over the country and the world. However because all of the students lived away from home it seemed like we were a little culturally sterile.
Think about this, how would you carry your culture with you if you were an adolescent no longer living with your family, in your neighborhood, or in your community of origin?
What about today Nov.8? I thought there is a BB at Black Dog? Not so interested in going over to MPLS.
SPXBarb, there is indeed a Beaker and Brush TONIGHT but the theme is Biological Art. It starts at 6:30pm at the Black Dog.
For Experimonth we are doing a special Beaker and Brush with an "Identity" theme. Because its a special one-time event, it will be at the Aster Cafe. I hope you can still make it even though it won't be in St. Paul.
As a child in Tucson, AZ i saw a fair amount of diversity. As a late elementary kid, Jr. and High school in Forest Lake, MN I saw almost zero. It was the U of MN that opened my eyes! I guess I had no negative experiences so I was open to what has come along.
SPXBarb, you say the U of M opened your eyes. Were there any specific experiences in college that led you to better understand other cultures?
The variety of people I met in different classes. As a person of science I met people from all over studying math, engineering, etc. I met a nice man from Ethiopia who introduced me to traditional cusine! It was fun as he made dinner for me. ;-)
SPXBarb, where did you study? In your math, engineering and science classes how diverse would you say the group of students was in terms of gender, race, age, etc?
Click here to download audio recordings from Beaker & Brush (zip)
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