When my academic advisor, Dr. Amber Johnson, first informed me of the opportunity to take this class, I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into (of course I filled out the application anyway). In a similar fashion, when I found out that Maggie and I were accepted to partake in the course, […]
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Hit the Ground Running
At long last, Maggie and I have finally received IRB approval to begin our interviews, and we will be able to record them as well. It has been a long and paperwork-filled journey to reach this point, but I believe having audiovisual elements on our project site will be well worth it and allow us […]
The One Where We Go to a Town Hall Meeting
Pictured below is a synthesized version of my notes from the Town Hall meeting Maggie and I attended last Wednesday. I split up my notes into three sections: struggles (the challenges the Congolese community currently face), resources (what is being used/can be used to improve these conditions), and goals (both short term and long term).
The Brain Waste Problem
Many of us have heard of the concept of Brain Drain – – but not as much consideration has been given to its lesser-known cousin, Brain Waste. Brain Waste is the phenomena where immigrants with higher education and specialized knowledge are forced to work lower-skilled jobs due to the insurmountable language barrier they face when […]
One step forward, two steps back
Truman State University does love its research paperwork. This is the main thing I have learned in the past few weeks. The Good News We received IRB approval for the initial draft of our project (after we submitted our French draft of the consent form, of course). We also received a $750 research grant to […]
A Changing Landscape
Adair County looked very different prior to the establishment of the first settlements in the 1830s and 1840s. The Keokuck Indians were the only inhabitants of this area of Northeast Missouri at the time, and relations between the Native American group and the settlers were fairly peaceful for the first decade of settlement. However, as […]
Crafting a Project Trajectory
A. Project Description This project will further the explanatory project embarked by Wilcox in 2016 in a team effort of Wilcox, a Sociology student, and Vietor, an Anthropology student, in an online, long-distance learning graduate level research course (SOAN 523). This will use ethnographic methods including interviews in order to gain insight on the immigration […]
Where Have You Been
Weise, Bernd Michael, Dennis D. Cordell, et al. “Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),” Encyclopædia Britannica (June 2017). Accessed September 13, 2017, Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo/Settlement-patterns As with any research project or curious inquiry, it is important to consider the context before diving in to answer a question or test a theory. For this reason, I decided to […]
Structural Obstacles
Brown, Danielle. “Kirksville R-III Adapts in Order to Better Integrate Congolese Students.” Kirksville Daily Express, 14 December 2015. ? http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/article/20151212/NEWS/151219704 After completing a close read of the above article, I began to think more of not just the interpersonal and individual obstacles presented to immigrants, but of roadblocks (so to speak) on the institutional level. […]