Comments on: Fulbright Pre-Departure Orientation

By: Ida

Ida — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:19:28 +0000

Jill! I missed you this past year at Parsons. I think you got a promotion, and then I didn’t know where your office was… Congratulations on that! Well deserved. I’m glad Chris encouraged you to get in touch. We speak fondly of you more often that you might guess. I hope that your own projects are going well and that life is good. It’s nice to know you’ll be listening in here. I look forward to being in touch in the future.

By: Jill Corson

Jill Corson — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:11:17 +0000

Ida, congratulations on the Fulbright Fellowship! I just learned of your good fortune on Monday through a press release sent out by The New School. I’m very excited for you and glad to have been an observer of your journey at Parsons. I ran into Chris Nesbit on Tues. He urged me to write to you. So, here I am. I look forward to reading about your work in Ethiopia — and keeping in touch.

By: …My heart’s in Accra » Ignoring the Omens

…My heart’s in Accra » Ignoring the Omens — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:24:57 +0000

[...] friend Ida Benedetto is heading to Ethiopia on a Fulbright scholarship. Fulbright brought me to Ghana for the first time sixteen years ago, and [...]

By: Ida

Ida — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:25:24 +0000

Thanks Barb. I am a huge fan of Margaret Mead and one of her former husbands, Gregory Bateson. As I understand it, the participant-observer trend in anthropology tried to address two things. First, the tension between being immersed in field work and maintaining an critical stance, which requires some distance from the subject. Second, the fallacy that one can be studying an environment or situation without impacting it. Here’s where an overlap between the work of Mead and Bateson comes in, as Bateson was a cybernetician looking at systems and communication. There is a lot to glean from their work in the interest of addressing the syndromes that Wilson-Oyelaran identified.

By: Barb

Barb — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:02:24 +0000

Ida: a fascinating look at the Fullbright program and those “syndromes.” I enjoyed reading your description. As someone who has undergrad and NSU work in Anthropology, these syndromes are similiar to “participant-observation” of cultures in field work such as you are doing. (Margaret Mead is one of the more famous scientists in this area).
I hope you continue blogging on your experiences in Africa, and again, congratulations. It is an honor for you to be a Fullbright scholar.