Class visit conversation, October 2, 2019

Start with one of the more conceptual questions, it's hard and if it's too hard to talk about, we can dive into other things. But something that might be nice, just for the purposes of recording, is when you answer the first question, if you just give your first name like, this is Natalie, what do you think?

Yeah, yeah.

Say this is, this is Naoko and I think blah-blah-blah, you know or whatever. So Naoko probably already explained that one of the goals of this project is to catalog and connect a bunch of social groups, a different variety of social groups in the DC area. So, as a starting point, Icebreaker, can someone share their idea of what a group is, say what a group is, or describe what being part of a group means to you.

This is Claire, I think a group is a community of people that share a common interest or common thread.

Very good.

Does anyone have a addition? Another definition of what a group is?

Or anything you can think about when you hear group.

Or what is it? Yeah. What do you think of when you think of groups?

Is it - You belong to many groups especially in this big large community. Do you consider this as a group?

Yeah. Are we in a group right now? How many people think yes? Raise your hand. I'll say almost everyone thinks we're in a group. Okay, why? Someone else who hasn't spoken? There's no wrong answers.

This is Malina. A group is just a collection of people and by that definition, we're in a group right now.

Do you feel like you belong to this group?

I do. I feel like I belong to this group because this is my photography class and I feel like throughout this month I've gotten to know everyone in the group and I'm in the group so I belong to the group.

Does anyone else have anything to add to that? (pause)

This is Yue-Yung. A group means a collection of people who share similar, who share the same topic or similar topics. For example we are a photography class. We have similar interest to learn photography technique. That's why we are a group.

How many people are art majors? A couple. Art major or minor, have an art concentration of some kind? So maybe half the class has an art concentration. Does that make you feel - I wonder, do the people who don't have an art concentration feel a strong sense of belonging to this group? this

For the people who are art majors, does it make you feel more like you belong? That you choose to study photography?

What do you feel when you say you belong to this class? Do you feel the same way with other classes you're taking? You're taking, I don't know, science class or accountant class, do you feel the same way? (pause) Marissa.

Okay. I feel like art's different. I'm not an art major, but I feel like I belong. But with a science class, I don't think I would feel that strong because I enjoy photography. So I feel like I belong.

There's something about doing something that you like, that makes the sense of belonging feel stronger. I see lots of nodding, that's interesting.

What about, maybe a different tangent. So how many people here would say you belong to a lot of of groups? It's a half or a third. And how many say you belong to not many groups? A smaller number.

For people that belong to many groups, can you say something about that? What are some of the types of groups you belong to? Why do you belong to lots of groups?

I belong to a lot of on-campus groups. I'm also a senior, so that might change if people are younger and they haven't joined a lot of organizations. But I joined them all for different reasons. I think they add different - And I share different interests within those with other people within the groups. So they serve different purposes.

Are those all official groups?

Yes. You mean like on-campus organizations?

Well, are the ones that you're counting in your mind that you consider a group. Does it have to be an official organization to count as a group in your mind?

I don't think so. I guess friend groups would count, people you live near, or if people still live in dorms, I guess your floor could count as a group.

It'd be interesting to hear something about different types of friend groups. (pause)

Well, I mean, so a dorm group is one type of friend group. I mean, how would you describe - How would anyone describe a friend group that you have here?

Emmy.

I feel like the different groups of people have different interests and different levels of comfortability to, like, with different groups. You spend different amounts of time with them too. You have bigger friend groups and then smaller friend groups within those ones.

Are there any friend groups that you have that you have sort of a name for, like in Naoko's truck? I mean, I get some of those are more formal like a book club group, but there was a morning walking group for example. Can anyone think of a name that you have for any set of your friend groups?

Amanda, do you have any?

Okay, this is Amanda. To me, groups are just so subjective. Like, this is a group. Friend groups are groups, like even the class is. I think there's infinite numbers of groups that everyone's involved in. So it's hard for me to think of a name for a specific friend group, but I guess if you guys as a friend group were involved with something in a class or something of that nature, then it would have a name.

Maybe then, could you share something about a group where you felt the greatest sense of belonging? Would you say, you felt the greatest sense of belonging to a friend group, or like, what makes the group that you feel the strongest sense of belonging to you? What makes you feel like you belong there?

Hmm, I think it would be a friend group just because that's a group that you personally choose, and a lot of the times groups are kind of just based upon who you meet, none of us picked to be in this class specifically. And I think that happens with most groups that we're in. So, a friend group or a group of family friends is something that I would think was the most personal.

Going off of that, I also think that the groups that I feel most comfortable and other groups that I have known for a long periods of time, or have spent lots of time around. So this classroom, I might not feel the same as when I'm with my friends from back home. But I feel like as time progresses, I'll definitely get closer to the group and feel like I belong more. Yeah.

That was something I was interested in - whether people feel a greater sense of belonging with groups outside of the university, inside of the university or do any of you belong to groups that span the university and beyond the university?

Especially - Louisa, you are an international student, right? (unintelligible) How would you respond?

Most of my group friends from here are not English speaking, so I can identify them as having the same cultures and that. But I also have friends who I've met here that are English-speaking.

There are some different cultures and you have to speak English in this place to get along in the cultural scene here.

What about you, Misha? You are an international students from China. Yeah.

There's a distinction because I don't think I belong to many groups here. Because, you know, the cultural difference and the language is a barrier for us to communicate with others. And actually I don't know what your definition of belong is. If you're in a group, Everyone needs to - I don't know how to explain.

Do something.

Yes. Maybe.

That seems an idea that sociologists, anthropologists have about social cohesion. So there are a bunch of things - The bunch of different things that might make a group more socially cohesive. I think it's interesting to think about how can you belong to groups that aren't here? Do you feel a greater sense of belonging to groups in China than groups here? And can you feel a sense of belonging through just interaction on WeChat or whatever?

So what are some types of activities that create a sense of belonging? That create social cohesion? So one thing is you have to do something to belong to a group. So what types of things do you do you all do to have that sense? I

I want to know if you can pick one group, you feel you belong and something unique or, you know, doesn't need to be unique, but something that you surprise people, like "oh my God"?

Yeah. What's a group - Can everyone think about a group that you're part of and that someone might find surprising?

Yeah, do you want to start from Claire?

I don't totally have an idea of this, but in one of my professional organizations, I think it's interesting that I've also found a subgroup within that group of also Chinese adopted people. So that's something unique that I wasn't expecting, but it's a group within a group at AU within a professional organization.

What's the professional organization?

Delta Phi Epsilon, it's the foreign service sorority. So within that, I found another group, which might not be unique to the group, but -

No that's great, that increases your sense of belonging to find those people.

What do you do as adopted child - Activity?

What do we do together? We just hang out, get food, talk. It's nothing official, it's very unofficial, but I think the more time you spend with people, the stronger your connection to them is.

What about you, Sana?

I guess I have my Starbucks group -

Do you work at Starbucks?

I used to manage a Starbucks and we kind of all stayed friends after I left. So even at my new job I just hang out with my Starbucks group, that's what I call them.

What do you think when you walk into a Starbucks, you know inside of the Starbucks? What was the difference? Before you worked, you had an idea of Starbucks.

Oh, I still hate it. They're awful to their people, they're just not great.

Oh wow.

Is that a shared value with the rest of the group?

That was a shared value.

Do you guys talk about the coffee or -

We drink together.

Coffee or alcohol?

Alcohol.

I don't know. I can't think of one that's unique.

You don't need to be unique. Anything you feel you belong to.

I have a group from high school that I was the president of this organization and then we were all friends, all the board members. And now whenever I go back home, we still go and get coffee and stuff together, even though we're not officially a part of that group anymore, we still stuck with that routine whenever we're home.

So I'm not really part of this group so much any more. But the first thing that came to my mind was I used to intern for Hillel, so being part of that community and also the LGBTQ community. I work with Rejuvenate which is basically, talks about like the intersectionality of the [Jewish] religion and the [LGBTQ] community.

For me, I joined a basketball group. So, I think when we're doing sports, everyone can make some contributions to the group, people need each other and think, it's just what I feel.

Is that in America?

Yes. Yeah.

Can I ask a little bit, so the basketball group, it's all kinds of nationality?

Sometimes we play with other colleges or something like workplaces or cafeterias but it is a Chinese - not Chinese, Asian group. It's like study unit. I'm not sure.

Me?

Yeah, Yue-Yung.

A religious group, like a Christian group, it's like a family group. Not really a family, we are not relatives. We are not [unintelligible] but we are families. These are natural bonds between us.

In America?

Yeah, in America. The first time I stepped into the church, I became a member of the group, it doesn't have requirements. There's no, you don't have to say things, you don't have to pay anything. You just automatically become a family, I remember.

Last year, I joined the Blackprint at AU which is a media organization at AU for students of color specifically. I joined because last year I was new and I was looking for these groups to feel a sense of belonging. Yeah, I guess it's just like being surrounded by a bunch of other creative people who also look like me gives me a sense of belonging.

I joined a painting group when I was in high school and we can talk about some people's thoughts and communicate with others through other people's work.

I guess that the group that comes to mind is my group of friends from - that I met here that are also Latinas. So I guess that makes me feel a sense of belonging because being like an international student and not speaking English as your first language when you're in a college in America, makes it very hard to get along and to understand everything. So having them makes me feel also that I have a part of home because they all have the same culture as me and they speak the same language.

What do you do with them?

We go out, we have fun.

So do you think that people you feel - your Latino group, do you think you guys are connected? Do you feel like you cannot be connected if you met them in your country?

Yeah, yeah. Yes, because we have, for example, one of my friends is from the same place where I am, but I would have never met her because she's from another school. But I know that if I would have met her somewhere I would still be as friends as I am with her because of the language, the culture, the family, like everything that we've lived through, we shared. So having that makes us belong together.

Brianna?

I would say a group that I'm part of is back home at my job. it's like a dessert waffle cone place I guess. It's a small staff. It's probably like five people and it's all girls around like the same age with different backgrounds. And we like - I guess when I go back home for fall break, we'll get together. That's what we usually do. We'll have like coffee or something.

So I joined the AU student government last year. I also was involved with the Residence Hall Association so I guess you know, being an AU student, I felt it was important to get involved on campus so I feel a part of the bigger group which is American University. A lot of my friends back in freshman year, they transferred out of American University. Just this discussion about groups, it really shows how we're one big group as American University. We are one section, one photography section as a class. So we're a class group.

Some people they don't feel like their home is American. So that's why, you know, they go back to their home state and they feel more of a connection back home because their family, their friends, their close groups are back home, because groups can be, you know, groups can be tight-knit groups. It can be best friends from high school, best friend from college, or it could be groups that were just made by chance: this photo class, other classes just being hear at AU.

My friend group back at home, one or two of the girls I've known since I was five, I guess. We went to the same middle school, high school. No, not high school. Lower school. But I don't know. We've been friends for a while and now in college we have a tradition where it's like girls trip or something. So each summer we go somewhere. So one summer we went to Miami and it's just fun. Like our goal is to do this for honestly forever, like marriage or whatever. It's kind of cute.

We have some 15 more minutes, like 14 minutes.

So it actually sounds like we've talked about these different qualities that make a group a strong group. And so there's a shared affinity or interest, like the photo group. The longtime participation, you know, the length of time, there's shared traditions, like going back and doing the same thing over time. There's obligation or doing something like contributing to a sports game. There's shared identity traits. And so you could - I don't know, I'm kind of curious if I was doing a design exercise, I would make everybody vote about what makes the strongest group. I'm kind of curious, but we don't have to do that. But I'm kind of curious, how many people think of American University as a group?

Everybody! Almost, not quite, no.

Why?

I just don't feel it's a group.

You do?

Just on that comment, I get what you're saying that we're more of a community rather than a group.

What's the difference in your opinion?

Like for example, let's say you live in Tenleytown, you're in a community. But let's say you are a part of a Christian group, or, you know, a newspaper group, and that's a group. So, group is like, a subset of -

- to be like physical appearance. For example, is a photography class a group because everyone [unintelligible], physically attend the class. But the one next to us is design class. But their students don't belong to our school, because they do not physically appear in our class. But we are the same community, we all belong to the art department. I think that's the difference.

I feel like if we had a sports team, or there's not a lot of things on campus that I feel unified. But then it's weird because I'll go somewhere like Dupont [Circle], just out or something, and I'll realize just talking with someone that we're both from AU and then I feel a connection to that person. So then it's like, weird I guess.

I think even, you know, even anthropologists are divided about whether it's more important - to whether shared traits, you know, like shared characteristics, are enough to make a group. Is it enough to be a group because you're all waiting for a bus? Is it enough to be a group because you all signed on to go to the same school, you know?

So another thing I thought we could do - Did you have any other questions about strength of affinity?

So the another part of this project is I want to come up with a description of a group that rings true to everybody who's in it. So I'm going to read a description that that we wrote of this class. And you can tell me if I got anything wrong or if there's anything to add about your own perception of this group. So Naoko Wowsugi's Introduction to Photography class at American University. Is that what it's called?

Artist's Perspective: Digital Photography.

Artist's Perspective: Digital Photography class at American University is composed of 14 students in all stages of their undergraduate degree. The class studies digital photography and meets every Wednesday for five hours. They do four projects over the course of the semester and learn how to use a digital camera and printer and to conceive an exhibition for any kind of project. The class includes art majors including photography BAs as well as non-art majors. The fall 2019 class includes students who come from, you know, who come from X, Y, and Z places. Originally from X, Y, and Z countries and X different states.

Like that's - So we have a survey we'd like to ask people to contribute to, where we say, you know, what do you answer when people say Where are you from? If that doesn't feel like a form of information that you would collect about this class, we can talk about it. I want to write something that feels reflective of the group as a whole and we all agree to. And then - I don't know - and I think one thing is many students describe this group as special or meaningful because of X or Y. We don't have to use the word special. But a few people said that - A lot of people feel that you share an interest in photography and that makes the group kind of different than another class that you might sign up for. So should we write something about that in the class description?

Yeah? It's pretty basic, but you know, it's just a way of saying we're not going to just pull a description from the internet of the class. And we want to agree on whatever our self-description is.

So I was saying, because it is a semester-long class, the group only lasts for 16 weeks or whatever. Does that make it a weak group?

I don't think so. I mean, I feel like with all the projects that we do along the semester, like all the struggles that we're going to have to face or, you know, whatever that may be, it unifies us more. Because like we were all on the same project, we all try to get a good grade. We feel creatively, be creative people.

I think time together can strengthen a group, but I don't think less time would necessarily weaken it, does that make sense?

To me, I give an assignment and they bring back responses the way they capture part of their life. And little by little, I feel like I learn. Well, you know, leading people to feedback what they are looking at or how they talk about it. Learning about each person's, not necessary personality, but piece of them, like how they think of what they're looking at. This helps to give me some information about that person. Like the lighting or how they talk about this book. It's more like we are sharing something like internal. Self-knowledge. Yeah, or who they are. To be repeating some sort of art practice. And I also learned this person's like [unintelliglible]. there. Try not to [unintelligible] too much or you know, that kind of. So then I learned about that person's guarding.

And presumably or other people learn that stuff too through the way you share projects.

Is there anything else you need to know for your project?

How many - Are there any people that are from this region? Just one?

I started this project because of my background. I was born in Japan as Korean. Then there's a lot of big racial issues between Japanese and Korean. Then I was told by my family to not tell people you are Korean, then I was like, okay. But that kind of weird sense of like, blocking. Like, I don't know. I feel like I am always like, no, she's my friend but I cannot tell her who I am. Then that was really interesting to growing up, having belonging. And once I came to America, I learned that I'm Korean here. So I always wonder what separates internally or like what divides me from my friend. I feel like I belong but we are divided. It's interesting because it's more like information and political things, not my [feelings] internally but that external information also broke my internal feeling of belonging.

Does anyone else relate to that? Have similar feelings?

And then seeing the political climate nowadays, there is, it seems like we're divided. But really it's more complicated.

Does anyone have anything to add about the feeling of maybe a group that you don't see yourself as being part of that other people see or a group that changes when you come to AU, for example? Or you change jobs or -

Yeah, I grew up in Rockville, which is really close and which has like a largely Asian population. Yeah, but since I am adopted, it was interesting to grow up having a white family, where a lot of my Asian friends say I was white because like culturally, I guess I am. But then coming here it's interesting because I joined Asian American Student Union and through my other organization I met other adopted Asians, and so, like, I've talked with a lot of different people on their stance about this, but coming from multicultural backgrounds, like you do, ,it's interesting to see not necessarily which identity you most relate to, but like, in what spaces you use certain labels.

So we have three minutes to drop off.

Do you want to tell them about the survey? Are you going to have them do the survey?

They already did it.

Cool, thank you. Do you want to ask one - anything?

I think we have what we -

Does anyone have any ideas for this project? Did you ask people to brainstorm groups that you might try to document in the course of this project already?

I have not looked at this all day, so yeah.

I know that's the official way, but when you think about trying to meet people in DC, are you going to put that list on the ball of the Humanities Truck? Like we're trying to find each other?

Yeah. In the future. What kind of group you know - cause as many groups, a diverse range of group should to be here. Does anyone have any group you want to take me?

I was just wondering, how far does the Humanities Truck go?

Anywhere in the DC, DMV area. I have to drive, yeah.

It's in northern Virginia.

Cool.

Because I have a friend at George Mason - Not George Mason but James Madison. But James Madison's really deep into Virginia.

What's that group?

I'm not sure what groups he's involved in, but I thought like a connection would be - because I'm sure he's involved -

You guys have to belong to a group and then he has to belong to a group. So it's like - I know an artist who is working on a project about, I forget what highway goes through George Mason, but it was about that Corridor, you know. Of course, everyone who is on that Corridor doesn't see themselves as a group, but - well I suppose that would be more of a community. But just thinking of the different axes that you could look at. Thank you for your time.

Do you have any question about the class next? So next class you need to bring camera. We do exercise for next project. Yeah, then we move on to the project.

All right? Thank you very much.

We have to do the challenge, right?

Yes. I feel like everyone already started doing the challenge.

Bye guys. Thank you. Thank you very much.