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Welcome to my Div II retrospective

Here are some quick links:

A more formal introduction

Div II Contract

CEL-2

Multiple Cultural Perspectives

All Self Evals

All Final Evals

explore dance                 •                 explore biology

All work from fall 2018

All work from spring 2019

All work from summer 2019

All work from fall 2019

All work from spring 2020

Eleanor

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Lighting collage for Making Dances II

fall 2018

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CEL-2

My CEL-2 during my Div II consisted of signing for a student group, Movers Unite! and being a TA for the class Physics of Color.

Movers Unite! is a student group organized initially to support students in the dance program getting to go to a conference called ACDA (American College Dance Association). The group was organized so we could get funding and support to organize a group of movers to attend the conference. It became clear though that the group could address a wider concern: creating a space for movers and dancers across campus to connect and collaborate. With the other signers, Eleanor and Josh, I helped to organize weekly meetings where we would meet for dinner, discussions, dance workshops, and community engagement.

Movers Unite! proved to be a really rich and wonderful way to connect the community of dancers here at Hampshire. I got to know many folks who I hadn’t been in class with that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. We also connected with other student group communities on campus like Contra Dance, as well as other student-run EPOCs who were interested in involving dancers and makers in their workshops. Eleanor and I continue to run Movers Unite! with the help of Blythe and hope to pass the baton to younger students in the coming year.

It was originally difficult to balance the work of running the student group with my other activities and schoolwork. There was a lot of organizing to be done: advertising the club, figuring out workshops and guest artists, brainstorming with the signers about what the club could do each week. In order to address these todo lists we had weekly meetings on Sundays to plan for the meetings and future endeavors. When Eleanor left to study abroad in spring of 2020, Blythe joined Josh and I as a signer for the group. Although that semester was shorter than the rest in terms of student groups, we acclimated to the new structure and had a few meetings that felt necessary in a time when community support was everything.

I also had the opportunity to TA for Kaća Bradonjić in the fall of 2019. This time I got to engage with the Hampshire community in a different way: I was able to support the learning of other students in a class that had deeply inspired me. 

I had a hard time at first engaging with the class and didn’t know how to handle my role as a teaching assistant. It was often difficult for me to tell when a student needed help and felt nervous to ask for it. One student in particular needed a lot of support from me. I spent much of my meeting time as a TA outside of class with this student. Read more on my reflections from being a TA for Physics of Color on the fall 2019 page where I reflect on the classes I took that semester.

My CEL-2 was naturally a part of my Div II experience. I engaged with communities in both disciplines that I hold dear, Natural Science and Dance. I was able to support these communities by organizing dance workshops and helping students learn about math, color, and light.

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Multiple Cultural Perspectives

What follows is a few examples of the ways I engaged with multiple cultural perspectives throughout my Div II.

I examined race and class throughout Div II, especially in how it relates to the dance world and my dance practices. The piece I worked on as a part of Deb Goffe’s repertory work in fall 2019 also speaks to engaging on a personal level with these politics. During this time I thought a lot about how I can support Black space in my own dance and dances.

During the class Critical Moves in the fall of 2019 I did a lot of engaging with multiple perspectives in the dance world. A lot of the discussions we had in class focused on various makers in the field who were using dance as a form of protest. We had only just begun exploring this rich topic when the semester was over, but it was a practice that I plan to carry through my Div III as well as the rest of my life. Watching dance is such a wonderful way to engage in difference because it humanizes us when we have been taught to other people who aren’t like us. Writing about dance and using dance to understand protest, resistance, and struggle was a huge part of my Div II that I again, hope to carry forward throughout the rest of my life.

I tried to engage race class and power in science as well, through my own research.  In conversations with my lab mates we discussed how STEM can be inaccessible to marginalized groups. We examined our own tendencies towards self doubt and how that can be a conditioned response. At the ASCB/EMBO conference, my lab partner Helen and I attended different workshops and discussion sessions centering POC in STEM as well as queer folks in STEM. We also attended a session on the importance of title IX coordination in grad school. These talks were easy to critique because they centered a very overtly competitive version of science-- one that at Hampshire there is just no room for. I would argue that if competition is the main structure at work, then equity is never going to be a reality. But they got the conversations started for us.

A text that stood out to me in this research is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which chronologies the story of a Black woman whose cells were stolen from her in the name of science. Because of their mutation, her cancer cells are useful in lab research, and HeLa cells are very common in the college and university level lab. None of her family has been compensated for her contributions to biology research, or even gotten profit from this book or the HBO movie made about her life.

Again, this research is never over and this is only the tip of the iceberg. What follows is a collection of my work that engaged multiple cultural perspectives.

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Eleanor

Eleanor Crawford was an incredible part of my Div II. Our collaboration blossomed beyond my wildest dreams. I feel so lucky to know her and to be able to create with her.

We lived next door to each other in Merrill freshman year, but didn’t connect fully until we were in Making Dances II together. We had danced together in a thesis project our freshman year, but had never worked together on anything else. It became almost immediately apparent that we would be collaborators for life.

I worked with her as a cast member in the piece she choreographed for Making Dances. I was so inspired and excited by her process. We worked together to choreograph a site specific dance at the gas station near the bridge into Northampton. It was working on this piece together that really solidified our bond for me.

When she asked me to collaborate with her on creating a solo version of the piece for ACDA, I was over the moon. We went on to create try to remember part 2, which became an exploration of our own relationship, finding one another here at Hampshire, and the dynamics of our collaboration. We brought the piece to the American College Dance Association’s east coast conference. Although the folks at the conference were very competition dance oriented, they really enjoyed our piece. The adjudicated feedback we received was stilted and strange because we presented work so different from the other things that graced the stage that night. But I am still endlessly proud of that piece and the work we did together.

I feel so grateful to Hampshire for bringing her into my life. My Div II would not be the same without her. I can’t wait to work on our Div III projects together. My life is better now that she is in it!

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Still from try to remember part 2 

last rehearsal before ACDA

Watch the full video

spring 2019

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Eleanor and I dancing in Rachel’s Div in the spring of 2018

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Eleanor and I in her piece for Making Dances II, try to remember

spring 2019

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Eleanor and I rehearsing the gas station dance

Watch the full video here

fall 2018

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Still from rehearsal

Watch the video here

fall 2019

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House Pioneer Project for House/Hip Hop

spring 2020

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Still from Shoulda Let You Go choreo by Shakia Johnson

Watch the full video here

spring 2020

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Self Eval for Chemistry II

I had a really successful semester in Chemistry II. I successfully grasped all of the concepts and proved my ability via problem sets, concept labs, and lab project reports. I entered this group late, as I had taken my first round of Chemistry class at Mount Holyoke. I think that I made the transition into the class well, even if it was a lot to transition to a different standard and requirements of learning.

At the beginning of the semester I struggled a bit with time management, and turned in two problem sets late. If I ever turned in something late it was because I knew it would be better to turn it in late and thoughtful than on-time and rushed. In general, my problem sets were clean and correct. Whenever I made mistakes or got a question wrong, I usually had a sound line of reasoning when going wrong. Furthermore, I made sure to consult Dula’s corrections to my work and internalize the correct way of doing things.

I consistently came to class and labs. Although I continuously had conflicts with Maggie’s potential TA hours (due to club meetings and dance rehearsals), I consulted her often during labs, and reached out to her outside of class. A friend and classmate, Julia Ramsey, also was a great resource to me (especially during remote learning), and often helped me through class structures that I felt unfamiliar with because I was new this semester.

During the second half of the semester I struggled to learn online. I found it difficult to internalize some of the mathematical concepts we were learning without the opportunity to discuss them during lab sessions, or outside of class. I had to create my own ways of holding myself accountable to getting the work done, and I am proud to say that I stayed on top of the workload during remote learning. My final paper could benefit from a few more sources, but I think overall it is a concise, thoughtful, and well-written report.

I am proud of the work I did in Chemistry II this semester, and I think my performance in the class was indicative of the engaged student that I am. I am excited to apply the knowledge I have attained in this class as I continue in my studies.

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Final Eval for Chemistry II

Daisy Maass has done superb work in this course and has enjoyed the course as well. Daisy regularly came to class and always seemed attentive and engaged. She has demonstrated through her written work that she has gained a sound understanding of the subject matter discussed in the class, and she can apply it in broader context. What stands out about Daisy is her good problem-solving ability. She gave uniformly high-quality performances on weekly problem sets, with only a few flaws. Daisy’s work demonstrated she has a comfortable working understanding of thermodynamics, chemical equilibria, and electrochemistry. She did excellent work on her final review problem set, while her first review problem set was good except for a few shortcomings. Daisy enthusiastically participated in lab work and field work, and her laboratory skills, techniques, and report writing skills improved wonderfully during the semester. Her project lab report on the investigation of radon levels in campus buildings was a very good piece of work; it was well written and rich in introductory content, analysis and analytical viewpoint. Her final project lab report, on the investigation of deicing inputs in a stream near a local dairy farm, was a great product and demonstrated she had sound understanding of the project and major outcomes of the investigation.  Daisy showed her ability to analyze results and provided a cogent discussion. This was a wonderful report and it demonstrated her strong growth in writing comprehensive chemistry project reports. In summary, Daisy is one of the brighter students in the class, with a knack for chemistry and a mature approach to her studies. She was a joy to work with. Fabulous job, Daisy!

-Dula Amarasiriwardena

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The Effects of Road Salts on a Hadley, MA Stream

Chemistry II

spring2020

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Final Eval for Biochemistry

Daisy Maass had an excellent semester in Biochemistry. Students were evaluated on eleven problem sets based off of textbook readings, a textbook chapter class presentation, laboratory work, three primary research article problem sets, class participation, a research proposal, and final presentation.

All of Daisy’s problem sets were completed at a very high level.  It was always clear that she completed the text readings and put thought into her responses with few mistakes.  She completed many of the more technical chemistry questions the best in the class. Problem sets related to primary literature showed that she got the major points of all papers and was able to interpret data well. She did very well in both the quantitative and qualitative content of the course.

Daisy completed all required laboratory work successfully. She showed competency in every laboratory task assigned this semester.

Daisy’s chapter presentation was phenomenal. She exhibited excellent preparation and presented smoothly with a logical progression.  She thoroughly addressed all of the important information from the chapter.

Daisy’s final was excellent.  She chose an interesting topic investigating whether tetracycline and its derivatives could influence mammalian cell viability.  She incorporated a remarkable amount of data from many sources of primary literature and explained all of them very well.  It was the most thorough final of the class!

Overall, Daisy performed strong work across all aspects of this course!

-John Castorino

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Effects of Tetracycline on Cell Metabolism

figures and references continued here

Biochemistry

spring 2020