52 Weeks, 52 Projects: Week One
I announced my intention to undertake this crazy project (rather, 52 projects, one for each week of the year) in an earlier blog post, but it was fuzzy and half-formed. Hopefully concrete examples will give you a better understanding...
The point of the entire 52w52p is to fill gaps in my education, stretch myself to new limits, learn things I've always wanted to learn, and advance in areas that I intend to pursue...but especially to continue making myself into a WELL ROUNDED AND COMPASSIONATE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.
I'm especially interested, as I always am these days, in shaking up my current perspective as a fairly privileged white woman from the western world. (I know a lot about Europe, a lot about the Americas, and far more than the average person about Asia...I was an Asian Studies major, after all...but VERY LITTLE about African history, especially pre-colonialist Africa. American education pretty much erases that continent from history, or rather, ignores the fact that it ever had a history independently of imperialism. My plan is to focus on Africa during Black History Month in February.)
To that end, I am going to read books, watch documentaries, take on challenging projects, learn new things, maybe even take a class. It's my way of continuing to grow as a person despite the current absence of formal education. (I graduated college last year...it hurts to say. I often wish I was still there.)
For Week #1, I focused on reviewing World History, with a bit of Big History thrown in. I decided to try John Green's Crash Course series and then stuck to it -- the videos are entertaining and intelligent, a little bit too goofy for my current taste (but something I probably would have appreciated when I was in school), and I LOVE the fact that the episodes are tied together with big-picture themes of humanity. It's exactly the kind of refresher course I needed.
And not only did I learn new stuff, but it was EXACTLY the kind of stuff I wanted to learn! (I.e. more emphasis on non-eurocentric histories and a definite grounding in perspective.)
1/1 -- Watched History of World in 18 Minutes (TED Talk)
Watched Crash Course World History: Episodes 1-8
1/2 -- Watched CCWH: Episodes 9-20
1/3 -- Watched CCWH: Episodes 21-28
Read the book Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India
Poor and illiterate, married off around the age of twelve, pregnant with her first child at fifteen, and prohibited from attending school, Sampat Pal has risen to become the courageous commander and chief of a women’s brigade numbering in the tens of thousands.
Uniformed in pink saris and carrying pink batons, they aim to intervene wherever other women are victims of abuse or injustice. Joined in her struggle by Babuji, a sensitive man whose intellectualism complements her innate sense of justice, and by a host of passionate field commanders, Sampat Pal has confronted policemen and gangsters, officiated love marriages, and empowered women to become financially independent.
In a country where women’s rights struggle to keep up with rapid modernization, the story of Sampat Pal and her Pink Gang illuminates the thrilling possibilities of female grassroots activism.
1/4 -- Watched CCWH Episodes 29-32
1/5 -- Watched CCWH Episodes 33-36
1/6 -- Watched CCWH Episodes 37-42 (Finished the season!)
