1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
This project hold a special place in my heart.
It was the largest project I took on while studying abroad in Germany.
I began exploration of my senior thesis topic: Culture and Stereotypes.
When beginning my research, I had absolutely no idea where I would end up. (see senior thesis breaking the stereotype)
I will use my experience abroad to gather pure cultural similarities and differences from students all over the world. A assemblage of cultural facts such as language, religion, traditions in food/drink, traditional clothing, number of family names/use of middle names, etc, as well as the outlook on the U.S. and American Culture, will be represented in a catalog of images of participants, a poster series, and a video capturing the different languages and faces.
I presented a group of people, via facebook, a ten question survey on stereotypes. The questions stated: How do you view....? followed by a certain country or culture. Participants were asked to be completely truthful and to answer anonymously.
The responses surprised me for a few reasons — I was shocked by the blunt repsonses and the variation of lengths, from short paragraphs to one-word answers, and of course, the outlook on the many different cultures. A handful ofanswers were aggressive, used swears, or made me question the roots, while others were detailed, charming, and generally kind.
The reactions, surprisingly, were exactly what I was searching for. In the next few months I hope to survey a much larger group of people to gather a greater outlook on peoples stereotypes of specific cultures and countries.