Skip to main content

The spring semester has arrived!

 Kia ora!

This week is the first week back for students as we start the spring semester. This is usually after a winter break for many. This means a busy campus full of life, and I love that. It has been relatively quiet the last few weeks as all the classes here have been online, but I am really happy to see so many people here, even the lecturers and professors. 

The first day of the spring semester in the main hall (photo by UMASS Boston)

So a little about UMASS Boston. To get here, I take a subway train to JFK UMASS Station and then there are free buses for staff and students to get to the campus. It's also a 10-15 minute walk. Boston State College merged with UMASS Boston in 1982.  The weather has been erratic over the last few weeks. The snow has been quite heavy during the last two days, and I've been told it is nothing compared to what will happen in the upcoming weeks. 

I decided to come to UMASS Boston, because I loved the idea of coming to a public research university surrounded by many private universities. I love the diversity of the university (third most diverse university in the states) and that it has a strong focus on the domestic population of the state of Massachusetts. There are more than 16,000 students that come here. The beacon is the symbol of the university. There is some history with beacons on hills in Boston. To the point, that a central suburb in Boston is called Beacon Point. 

Meet the Visiting Scholar poster in the hallway 

Across the road is the JFK Museum and Library, a highlight. I spent nearly 3 hours here looking at the different exhibitions, watching some of his speeches, and seeing how he interacted with international delegations. There was also a substantial piece on his support of the civil rights movement. I did not know too much about JFK before I came to Boston, but I can understand why he was loved by so many. 

Inside of the JFK Library and Museum 



Today I checked some of the labs associated with the Anthropology department. I am always interested in learning new knowledge, so learning about the different  animal bones and the importance of identifying such bones. They can give you more information about the different diet habits of the animals and their environment. 

Speaking with a master's student in the lab about her research


These are some of my adventures so far here at UMASS Boston. I am preparing to meet indigenous communities and young Native Americans to interview for my research project here, guided by the academic staff. I am now waiting for my ethics application to be approved (an integral part of research) and after that, I should be set to go. 

Take care, 

Will 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wampanoag School

  Kia ora, This is my last blog from UMASS Boston. I travelled by car with Professor Fung to the Mashpee Wampanoag Language School. The Wampanoag people are known as the people of the first light. Their traditional homelands are situated in South East Massachusetts. It was an incredible experience. Firstly, I watched a documentary called “We still live here” to prepare myself for the school visit. The documentary was made in 2010 and is a story about how they started a journey of revitalising the Wampanoag language, which had no fluent or native speakers. One of the Wampanoag ancestors  The school is within the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Centre – about 90 minutes from Boston. When we arrived there, it was nap time for the little kids. The school has around 25 students (Years 1- 4) with a small number of teachers with differing levels of Wampanoag language. The school has a Montessori theme that centres children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guest Lecture teaching about the film, Whale Rider

 Kia ora everyone, The weather has been pretty good over the last week. It’s weird – some days, it is relatively warm, but the snow randomly starts falling on other days. The reality of New England weather during this time of the year. I have two weeks left in Boston before I head to Amherst for a month. I'm going to miss this place a lot when I leave in early March.  The entrance of the student centre at UMASS Boston My first experience was as a guest lecturer in the paper Indigenous Film and Critical Visual Studies at UMASS Boston. It was a diverse class with around 30 students. It was a level 3 paper. We looked at the themes of the movie, Whale Rider, directed by Nikki Caro. This movie is one of my top 3 Aotearoa New Zealand movies. It came out while I was a student in high school, and I remember watching it at the cinema. This was the first I had heard of the legend of Paikea beforehand. I remember, at the time, it was different seeing Māori as the main characters in a mov...
Post a Comment
Read more