1 10 91 https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/0f699af6f0a266a32c0290ccdd04a530.pdf 9f315ccfee02fe3c0b7f675b57a537a3 PDF Text Text Naveed Ahmed, Daniel Coyne, Susmita Chakraborty, Brian Khaneyan AAS 307 SECTION ONE Person interviewed: Margarethe (Maggie) Adams Interviewee’s title or position: Margarethe holds many titles in obtaining a B.A. in Russian and Soviet Area Studies and both a M.M. and Ph.D. in Musicology. She also holds a position as a professor of music and an assistant professor of Ethnomusicology at Stony Brook University. On top of being an expert and pioneer in her field, Maggie is also a wife, a mother and a provider for her family. Date: Wednesday Nov 11 , 2015 th Time, and length of interview: 1:08:32 Via Audio Recording Your objective in conducting this interview: The initial focus of the interview was to address and develop a vivid analysis of ethnomusicology, but further developments in the interview led us to poke at the role of women in ethnomusicology, the countries that Maggie visited, the role of women in said countries, and what exactly it was that got her interested in her field of work. SECTION TWO With a little direction from Professor Christoff we found Margarethe Adams on the Stony Brook University department of music page and began to putting together a little bit about her career and prior education. We decided to centralize our focus of the interview on Ethnomusicology. However, prior to the interview we could only manage to grasp a vague interpretation of what Ethnomusicology was. Thankfully, Naveed and Brian had already taken a class with Professor Adams and that allowed us to really have our first foot in the door, on a personal level. What �really helped us structuralize our interview was when Naveed and Brian both expressed how easy it was to talk to Maggie and how passionate she was about what she taught in class. We decided as a group beforehand to use Maggie’s strengths and passions to guide us through the interview. With a malleable backbone, our interview was led in directions and to topics we never would have expected to cover if we had sought otherwise. We learned that sometimes, the best journey is one that is most unexpected, making the end of the road that much sweeter. We sent Maggie a couple of emails prior to the interview to clarify a couple of specific details. We conversed about a few topic questions from which we created a sample outline of potential questions that are listed below: -In our previous correspondence, you defined ethnomusicology as combining anthropology with music. Can you elaborate on that? -Did you have any familial influences that affected your decision to pursue a career in ethnomusicology? -Were there any obstacles you faced as a woman pursuing a career in ethnomusicology? How were your experiences different compared to male colleagues? -What contributed to your decision to switch from Russian and Soviet Area studies to focusing on musicology for your Ph.D.? -How would you describe the living conditions of the women living in the areas you have worked in? -What aspects of a society’s culture are reflected by its music? How do you feel this differs from country to country? Can you make any comparisons? -According to your profile on the University’s Department of Music page, your next project is a study of music and Islam in Central and Inner Asia. How is the project going? What are your findings so far? -Do you have any words of advice for aspiring ethnomusicologists out there? -What were some of your favorite countries to study and do work in? �SECTION 3 We got more than complete answers to our questions in our interview with Margarethe Adams. We were fortunate enough to be interviewing someone with her extensive experience because we were able to ask one question and be responded to with answers that were easily several minutes long at a time. Not only did she more than sufficiently answer the questions that we came into the interview with, but her responses would raise different issues and touch on things that we may not have even been aware of. This would lead to many spontaneous followup questions and requests for her to elaborate further on all the great points she was raising. Even though our group had done our preliminary research on Margarethe and her work, we understood that a career as extensive and diverse as hers simply can not be summed up in the brief biographies and descriptions we were able to find online. Because of this, we chose to have our interview be a middle ground between being structured and unstructured. The preliminary research allowed us to form a list of questions that covered the main points we wanted to cover. However, we did not want to prepare all the questions beforehand and risk the interview being too structured. This would make us feel obligated to adhere to that structure and potentially miss out on things we may not have considered, as well as making the conversation feel monotonous and forced. Our decision ended up being for the best, as we maintained a basic structure while at the same time giving the interview some wiggle room to diverge and just let the conversation flow organically. Most of the information we got out of this interview ended up being the result of that. As the conversation started to come to a close, we had a question or two from our list that was unanswered. Margarethe had no problem backtracking for us and answering them, and this allowed her to give a more focused opinion and answer than when we just let the conversation go wherever. Having our interview be a mix of structured and unstructured was definitely the right decision. In moments where we felt that we needed to steer the conversation in a slightly different direction, we used our probing questions. We started off the interview by asking “Could you �please describe what ethnomusicology means to you?” and Margarethe’s response to this served as the foundation for the rest of the interview. Later on in the interview when she spoke about her experiences working in different parts of the world, we found ourselves particularly interested in her work in Kazakhstan. We decided to ask her on the spot “Could you please elaborate on your experiences in Kazakhstan?” as that was one of the places she particularly focused on throughout her career. This question got her to tell us about the idea of Islam in Kazakhstan and how different people and cultures interpret the same religion differently. She went on to give examples of this in how Kazakh women would dress and how people would embark in pilgrimages. We certainly would not have gotten this thorough response from her if we worded our question in a different way, such as “Why did you focus so much on Kazakhstan?”. This certainly demonstrates the importance of probing questions that do not create an unintentionally biased response from the interviewee. Daniel handled correspondence between Margarethe and us and arranged the interview with her by e-mail. All of us contributed to the pre-interview research and helped compile questions. During the actual interview, Susmita setup the audio recording on her laptop. After that, there was not necessarily a division of tasks. All of us were equally part of the conversation with Margarethe and passed around our list of questions. We all jotted our own notes throughout the interview whenever we saw fit. This meant that even when someone was writing, the rest of us were there to keep Margarethe engaged at all times through conversation, follow up questions, eye contact, and non-verbal gestures. While Margarethe did not give us any particular references to articles or people to research, she did incorporate the experiences of other people in her answers to our questions. One particular instance of this was when we asked her about her experiences as a woman in the field of ethnomusicology and the challenges it presented to her. This brought up the issues of being a pregnant woman or a mother working in the field, as well as sexual harassment experienced by women in different countries. She would not only share with us her personal �experiences, but the experiences of her colleagues and friends and just what she has observed throughout her career. It is certainly understandable that she would not want to disclose names of any of her colleagues who experienced terrible forms of sexual harassment, for the sake of their privacy. SECTION 4 Interview Notes:  Ethnography: specific geographic focus; performance; primary mode of research  Kazakhstan: many cultural clashes; political ideology & music  Politics → music in public places → propaganda o Are the people of the country buying the propaganda?  Role as woman o Gender big part of ethnography o Gender roles in society  Marriage in 30s  El Monty, Kazakhstan  Political ideology through institutions o Familial connections  Old model vs. new model of ethnomusicology o Research through literature vs research through socialization  Traveling with kids  Trip in China (middle of winter)  Bus trip  Some sexual harassment o Some women attacked o Kazak festival...incident with elderly gentleman o Married women seen as not available o No special treatment to them because of them being American  Countries that end with “-stan” → Muslim stereotypes  Reverse culture shock: very diverse communities exist there o Research question: how are women examining themselves after fall of the Soviet Union?  Idea of worship  Feeling of spirituality  Pilgrimage vs. going to mosque  Going to pilgrimage as tourists during Soviet era  Pilgrimage → what is it doing that social structure isn’t doing? o Reasons...fertility, legal issues, etc o No major lifestyle change (go once and it’s over) o Businesses revolved around practice (busses, travel, hotel)  Being a “proper” Muslim o Wearing hijabs/religious articles of clothing  Those who are Muslim but do not wear hijabs: are we less Muslim?  Music and belief? o Christian and Islam �       Understanding languages → opening doors “Christmas Cake” concept o After 25 years old, women seen as undesirable for marriage Favorite place → China o Year after Tiananmen Massacre o Xiendu (Southwest Province) Worship in performance o How you perform belief Political ideology o Public performance Television o Media, what kinds of media/music are being shown on TV o National holidays → folk music o Imported holidays (ex: New Years) → 70s/80s Russian music How is time reflected in performance? SECTION 5 Throughout the interview, many emerging topics were raised and stayed relevant through the course of the conversation. The most overarching theme was the concept that being a woman had both its advantages and disadvantages in the field of ethnomusicology. While being a mother and a wife opened up many doors to environments that otherwise would not have been explored by a single counterpart (such as daycares, schools, etc), it also came with the issue of safety while traveling, traveling with young children, and the possibility of being sexually harassed. Another huge umbrella theme of the interview focused on the role of how the portrayal and type of music performed or utilized in public places was a reflection of political ideologies being imposed on the citizens. For example, national holidays specific to Kazakhstan would imply music on television to be geared towards traditional Kazakh folk music, while imported holidays (such as New Year’s Eve) entailed Russian music from the 1970s-80s. The fall of the Soviet Era played a huge factor in the shift Kazakhs have taken in learning where they belong in the spiritual and religious realms, as well as seeking a new-found identity for themselves that best express their views. The practice of pilgrimage, which was once perceived as touristic for Kazakhs, was now being observed as a sacred, religious journey, one which is symbolical of that of Kazakhs. �The amount of interpretations that could have been made from Ms. Adam’s interview was limited as the accounts and stories that were told were very black-and-white and to the point. The only room for interpretation was left amongst ourselves after we walked out of Ms. Adams office and was given the chance to take in everything that was said, reflect on it, and sum up key points that Ms. Adams wanted us to walk away with. These key concepts include introspective views of what it meant to be a woman ethnographer, being a wife and mother on the job and having to encounter hardships of travel and being in an unfamiliar place. It also put into perspective how being a woman allowed for a different type of experience for an ethnographer compared to a male counterpart, as women had more familial connections in these societies through children and other children’s parents. Due to the amount and depth of content we were able to walk away with from this interview, our group did not feel that a follow-up interview would have been necessary with Ms. Adams. We did not expect to get the huge amount of material from her as we had originally anticipated, and there were many parts of the interview that were not needed for the purposes of our final project. However, the in depth explanations that we did not incorporate or emphasize greatly in our project definitely contributed to our understanding of the points made by Adams, and helped us better demonstrate the research and career paths taken by Adams and her reflections on her work. Our group was lucky in the way that we had prepared our interview questions to serve as a sort of “skeleton,” which Adams was easily able to attach flesh and meat to because of her abundance of experiences and thoughts to share from. None of the questions that we had come to the interview with went unanswered, and we were able to receive a greater understanding of the type of society that exists in Kazakhstan, as well as other areas that Adams had done research in, bridging the gap of knowledge between what we had perceived these societies to be like and what they actually are. While our approach to the interview with a “skeleton” question list, and actively asking questions based on her answers worked for us, it’s important to note that this approach was a �tactical decision made by the group beforehand. Based on the research we had done, and the prior knowledge we had with Brian and Naveed taking a class with Professor Adams beforehand, we knew that Adams would be incredibly open and accommodating to most of our questions, and would enjoy questions that would naturally come up during the interview. However, some interviewees do not work well with such an approach. An interview that shows this is Nancy Payne’s interview, conducted by: Junbum Hwang, Hosun Jung, and Kyuri Kim. In this interview, the students were interviewing the Vice President of PeaceTech Labs - a position that can be exposed to public scrutiny. Much like a politician, someone with this position in a company would be expected to have very thought out and concise answers, as their answers could affect the company. In their public speaking, they tend to be very careful about what they say, making sure that nothing they say can be either taken out of context, or simply taken the wrong way. The easiest way to see an example of this is through Twitter. Twitter is a social media platform designed to share your personal thoughts. However, there is a distinct difference between the twitter of a politician, and the twitter of one of my high school teachers, @MrReiff on Twitter. I specifically use this example because these two cases are very comparable. Mr. Reiff interacts with other Twitter accounts, having interesting discussions on education, specifically technology education. However, Mrs. Payne uses twitter simply as a platform to promote PeaceTech Labs: “Give the gift of a peace on #GivingTuesday! Help support the @PeaceTechLab http://www.peacetechlab.org/support “ - @NSPayne. This analysis of Twitter profiles can tell us a lot about a person, and how they would respond to interview questions. Unfortunately, Professor Adams did not have a Twitter. Payne seemed to answer the interview questions in a way that is reminiscent of a politician's answers. She would not necessarily dodge questions that asked for a strong opinion, but she would essentially give a non-answer for some of the questions that could have portrayed her in a bad light. With that being said, the interview was still very interesting as she had a lot to say about her company, and the great work it does. I believe that if we had a subject like this, our interview would not have been as �successful with our “skeleton” question list approach. This interview taught us that it is incredibly important to understand your subject prior to interviewing, as it’s critical to create a successful question list and interview approach. However, good planning and prior knowledge of our subject indicated to us that our interview would be successful with our approach. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Adams, Margarethe ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_madams_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-11-11 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ahmed, Naveed ; Coyne, Daniel ; Chakraborty, Susmita ; Khaneyan, Brian Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Margarethe (Maggie) Adams https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/f6d962dc8387a343ad82262b75857de7.pdf badc479a3738dd8693252b46668cfeb5 PDF Text Text Margarethe Adams is an ethnomusicologist and a professor at Stony Brook University. Since her childhood, she had a strong interest in Central Asian culture, which culminated in her studying Russian and Chinese as an undergraduate and conducting her first ethnographic work in Kazakhstan. Her main areas of work also include China, Japan, and Mongolia. Margarethe is interested in the political implications of ethnomusicology in the areas that used to be part of the Soviet Union. She looks at music and musical performances and how they reflect these changing political ideologies, as well as diasporas of people who spill over across the borders into other countries. On a cultural level, her work as an ethnographer allows her to shed light on the experiences of women and their roles in these different societies. This contributes to the overall greater understanding of women in the context of USAsian relations. *Audio Clip Plays* As discussed in this sound clip, ethnography is a very collaborative field. The research and subject matter that ethnographers study relies on the conversations and mixing of ideas brought about by discussions between ethnographers. Being a woman in this field is very important, because there is a certain perspective that women can bring to the table in cultural study fields such as ethnography. This perspective would perhaps not be represented if the field was dominated by men. While this is a benefit and a necessity for the field, Adams also brought up that being a woman in academia is very difficult, especially as academia becomes an �increasingly competitive field. She notes that academia requires a full commitment to work, and that most people are essentially working full time until they are thirty. This brings up a problem for most women who are looking to get into the field, as Adams notes there is essentially no time to look for a spouse, or to have children during your 20s to 30s, as this is the time when you would be working the hardest in academia. �Clip 1 - “Maggie’s research and field work lies in a number of different countries, but her concerns remain centralized on the Political ideology and musical performance in Kazaks and diasporas near and around Kazakhstan. For those of you who don’t know what diasporas are, it’s a term that describes Individuals or groups of people that have ventured beyond their native borders and settled.” Clip 2 - “This interview was held in real time on November 11th of 2015, at the Staller Center for Music on Stony Brook University’s West Campus. Maggie Adam’s personal office sheltered our interview for 68 and a half minutes. The space provided us with an adequate environment to tentatively take notes and study our subject. The initial focus of the interview was to address and develop a vivid analysis of ethnomusicology, but further intentions led us to poke at the role of women in ethnomusicology, the countries that Maggie visited, the role of women in said countries and what exactly it was that got her interested in her field of work.” � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Adams, Margarethe ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_madams_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ahmed, Naveed ; Coyne, Daniel ; Chakraborty, Susmita ; Khaneyan, Brian Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Margarethe (Maggie) Adams https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/fe0eb2cbd11c6a747aa7fdd1b20afb33.pptx a449724bee6bab22b17ca9b9bfba2d40 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Adams, Margarethe ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_madams_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ahmed, Naveed ; Coyne, Daniel ; Chakraborty, Susmita ; Khaneyan, Brian Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Margarethe (Maggie) Adams https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/0cd96599e9a375ec7b470b158b33fc77.pdf 32cc4a048b849b454e27a95431a617ca PDF Text Text Section One  Person interviewed:​ Jennifer Chou  Interviewee’s title:​ Founding member and former Deputy Director of Programming at Radio  Free Asia  Date, time, and length of interview:​ November 1, 2015 2 p.m ­ 1 hour, 15 minutes, 50 seconds  Objective: ​To understand and learn more about the career path and experiences of Jennifer  Chou. We were especially interested in her effects on US/Asian relations as a whole.  Section Two  For pre­interview research, we searched Ms. Chou’s name on Google. We received few  results, but did find a link to The Weekly Standard. Ms. Chou wrote for the China blog from  2007­2008.  In order to prepare for the interview, we searched Ms. Chou’s name on Google to find  any information that we could. We browsed the blogs she wrote for The Weekly Standard in  order to get an idea of her writing. She sent Ericka weblinks, which were then distributed so we  were able to read blog entries of hers. To formulate interview questions, we brainstormed about  the different information we were interested in finding out about her. For these questions, we  tried to pick a range of them that covered early life, education, work with Radio Free Asia, and  future plans.  Interview questions:   1. We know that you were born and grew up in Taiwan, could you tell us a little bit about  your childhood and what that was like?  1  �a. (Probing) Was there one “ah­ha” moment where you knew you wanted to be a  journalist?  b. (Probing) Can you tell us a little about your parents and what sort of influence  they gave you as a child?  c. (Probing) How did your mother feel about you being a journalist?  2. Could you talk about your college education?  a. (Probing) In college you studied literature, and went on to do what?  b. (Probing) What gave you the idea to write your dissertation on reportage  c. (Probing) When the Department Head told you there were few spots for transfer  students in journalism, did you accept it, or did you realize it was wrong?  3. When you came to the US, can you tell us the differences between the cultures?  4. Could you tell us about your experience and work with Radio Free Asia?  a. (Probing) When you were approached to start Radio Free Asia, what was your  initial reaction?  b. (Probing) When you started, it was 1 hour/day, what was the time frame of Radio  Free Asia growing  5. What were you most afraid of when starting Radio Free Asia? How much professional  experience had you had before, were you prepared?  6. Did you ever face any criticisms when working for Radio Free Asia?  a. (Probing) How did you convince accomplished journalists to work for you?  7. We know Radio Free Asia was responsible for covering news that mainstream media did  not, was there a common theme of uncovered news in mainstream media?  2  �8. What would is one of your biggest accomplishments while working with Radio Free  Asia?  9. What are some examples of favorite stories you’ve covered yourself?  10. Could you tell us about the Human Rights Network?  a. (Probing) When you submit the proposal to the UN, what are you hoping  changes?  b. (Probing) How did you create the draft?  11. Have you ever been wrong or unable to verify or confirm human rights violation details  a. (Probing) Did you feel disappointed [because you couldn’t find the source?]  12. Did you ever work with someone you didn’t necessarily agree with? If so, how did you  combat that?  13. Is there anything you would’ve wanted to change while working for Radio Free Asia?  14. What do you suggest for a woman who wants to successfully pursue her career of choice?  15. Is there one person you think is the most interesting that you’ve had the pleasure of  working with?  16. Can you tell us about how being a woman influenced how you led in your profession?  17. Can you talk about some of your greatest accomplishments?  18. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? Anything we missed that you’d like to  talk about?  19. Did you choose to study in the US because you were not able to study journalism in  Taiwan?  3  �20. After you got your PhD, what did your professional life look like leading up to Radio  Free Asia?  21. How many different dialects do you speak?  Section Three  1. Did you get complete answers to your questions? Explain.   Ms. Chou gave us very thorough responses to each of our questions. At times, she  answered more than one question with one response. During other instances, she gave various  examples of her life experiences within the response of one question. For example, she  mentioned that traveling to the U.S. was not a huge culture shock because she grew up watching  American programs on TV as a child. This gave us an idea of what her experience was like when  she first came to the states, and it gave us more background information about her influences  growing up.   2. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Explain.   We went into our interview prepared with questions to provide structure to the interview,  but also prepared to ask unplanned questions based on Ms. Chou’s responses. Our interview  began with our planned questions, with some small follow up questions depending on the  response. We started with questions about Ms. Chou’s childhood. We then asked some  unplanned follow­up questions about her career path and the reasons why she chose to become a  journalist. Her answers indicated possible gender influences, like when her professor told her she  that she could not become a journalism major because women do not often go on to use their  education due to having domestic responsibilities. Later on, we would use these hints to ask  some questions about her opinions on gender in the workplace. There were many instances like  4  �this where we asked questions based on her responses rather than staying with the questions we  prepared. Overall, our interview was primarily unstructured with substantial planning and  planned questions going into the interview.   3. What probing questions did you use?  Explain.   When Ms. Chou answered our initial questions, she gave certain answers that increased  our curiosity, leading to probing questions. For one question, we asked Ms. Chou to tell us about  her college education. She began telling us about how she initially majored in English and went  to speak to an administrator about transferring into the journalism program. The administrator  told her there was little room for female transfers because they often got married, had children,  and stopped working. Megan proceeded to probe and ask how Ms. Chou reacted to this  experience with the administrator, and whether she accepted this answer from him or realized it  was wrong. We were surprised to find that Ms. Chou was initially an English major, and even  more surprised to hear the response from the administrator when she attempted to change majors.  To find out more about Ms. Chou’s feelings, we had to come up with an unplanned probing  question. For example, we asked her broad questions like, “who was the most interesting person  you’ve encountered.” She answered saying she met a blind advocate. We probed her response by  asking what made him so interesting, which made the question more precise, and we went on to  ask how having this experience shaped her career choices. It was evident she felt admiration for  this person because he faced personal adversity, however he continued to help others despite  being blind. From the interview, we could tell she thought highly of this person, and there was a  sense that she strived to help others in her own way.   4. Explain your team approach.  That is, who did what?   5  �During the first day the project was introduced, Drazen created a Google Doc. We each  wrote our own portion of the introductory email, and when allowed, Ericka sent the email to Ms.  Chou. During class time, we all created and contributed interview questions to a different Google  Doc that Drazen created. Since most questions of our interview questions were put together  during class time, only few were added outside of class by Drazen and Ericka. Ms. Chou kept in  correspondence with Ericka via email, exchanging pre­interview research links/information and  interview date/time proposals. The day of the interview, all four of us arrived at Humanities  between 1:30 and 1:45 to set up prior to the interview. Drazen brought her laptop and we each  brought headphones in order to hear Ms. Chou. During the interview, we took turns introducing  ourselves. Megan and Drazen asked most of the interview questions, but all four of us asked at  least one. In class, Drazen, Raven, and Ericka started working on the paper by filling in any  information we could. That week, all four of us met to work on the interview write up. During  our meeting, Drazen and Megan worked on the Process slide, Ericka worked on the Content  slide, while Raven added to the write up. Until we finished the write up, we each added  information where we were able to. Before our presentation, Drazen and Ericka met up to finish  the PowerPoint, where Ericka recorded the audio content for both slides. Due to faulty audio,  Ericka re­recorded the slides at home. Prior to submitting the write up, we all looked over the  paper and added any final touches.  5. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she  mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? Explain.   In the first email to Ms. Chou, we asked her to provide any information that she wished  for us to know in order to formulate our interview questions. She responded with the link to the  6  �blog articles she wrote for The Weekly Standard (​weeklystandard.com/author/jennifer­chou​),  which we initially found after searching her name on Google. During our interview, she told us  about one activist she worked with, Chen Guangcheng, and how interesting she thought his story  was. Because of our interest in his story while she was telling it, she sent Ericka the links to two  blog articles she wrote for The Weekly Standard, which were then distributed to the rest of the  group (​weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/892lwkpg.asp​ and  weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/602forjl.asp​). These links were  helpful because Ms. Chou was able to provide us with background information to become more  acquainted with her written work.  Section Four  Interview Notes: ​Jennifer Chou grew up with a supportive family. One thing that was  interesting was that she experienced American culture through TV programs. Her parents  encouraged her to get an education, despite the Confucian society she grew up in. When Chou  was in college, she attempted to change her major to journalism, but was denied. She explained  that “transfer spots were for men because they would not be wasted on women who leave to have  a family.” This did not stop her. She finished her undergrad, and went on to pursue journalism in  the U.S. There she insisted hard works was all she needed to become successful. She was  following the republican campaign, when she was approached to be a founder for Radio Free  Asia (based off of Radio Free Europe.) When she was asked, “are you afraid of a challenge?” she  took a leap from the job she always dreamed and finally accomplished to pursue something new.  She explained that above all, you need to do what you are passionate about and you need to work  hard at what you love. She loved to cover the stories that mainstream media would otherwise  7  �ignore. She spread knowledge in a way that allowed her to combine her love for writing with her  own ideal of increasing awareness in Asia and all over the world.   Consider what was said, emerging trends your interviewee mentioned, different  interpretations, and recommendations for follow up interviews.  Ms. Chou spoke with an undertone of humility and an undying belief in hard work. In all  of her responses, she spoke not as an successful woman but as someone who simply went above  and beyond in all she did. She never spoke from a place of privilege but rather ignored social  connotations of gender and race, because to her hard work overruled all. Those who recognise  gender as an obvious social factor may have a hard time with some of Chou’s responses.  However once we recognize that she speaks from a place where gender was viewed very  differently, we realize that her opinion is likely a product of her time. We would be interested in  hearing more about Chou’s thoughts of Confucian society and how they contribute to her  opinions on race and gender in America.   One recommendation we can give to future interviewers is to take note of how their  interviewee reacts to the questions. Ms. Chou very strongly feels that accomplishments should  not be tied to gender. Although we know about gender inequality from class, she felt that,  “saying someone’s accomplishments were great ​for a woman​” is disrespectful because it belittles  the accomplishment. Knowing this prepared Drazen to answer one of Chou’s questions: “is this  project for a women’s class, or women only?” Drazen responded along the lines of, “the class  does acknowledge women, since it is ‘Women in U.S.­Asian relations,’ however this project is  more focused on individuals, men, women, Asian, or not, who have major accomplishments.  We’re reporting on how the career trajectory was accomplished and what inspired people to end  8  �up where they are today.” I think Ms. Chou appreciated the response, since she felt she was  picked for her work and not solely because she’s a woman.   Section Five  What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful?   Ms. Chou’s advice to us was particularly meaningful. She believes that she is very  fortunate to match her passions with her skill sets and actually love what she does every day. She  encouraged women to read, read, and read some more. She stresses the importance of passion in  curiosity inside their desired field. This passion allows her to work toward something  meaningful. Moreover Ms. Chou encourages women to work over and beyond expectations. She  explained using the instance where she worked the soundboard in her entry level job just because  she wanted to learn how to do it. Not only did she go beyond her job description by working the  soundboard, but she also explored a new aspect of the journalism career by doing so.   Ms. Chou’s take on gender allows us to recognize the importance of self drive and  passion rather than focusing on the drawbacks of gender differences. Unlike Ms. Chou, many  women could have been deterred by not being able to pursue their desired major. However Ms.  Chou continued on to work in journalism despite the adversity she faced. She believes that “there  is no substitute for hard work” and that women and minorities will not be affected by career  discrimination if they commit to working hard. Ms. Chou was extremely humble and brilliant.  She is truly an example of an hardworking person whose impactful work continues to alter the  foundation of US/Asian relations.  What aspects were not useful?   9  �Speaking with Ms. Chou was an amazing experience. All of her wisdom and advice was  extremely useful. Her story was interesting from start to finish. The entire interview process  taught us a lot about the journey to finding our perfect career. In all, there was hardly any  material that was not useful.   What more would you like to know?   Upon reflection there were a few more things we would love to know about Ms.Chou.  One thing we did not hear much about was her personal life. We learned that she has a husband,  but did not inquire about if she had any children. Based on that response it would be interesting  to find why or why not she decided to have kids. We could then inquire about how her career  played into her family choices.   Ms. Chou’s opinions on the gender were interesting in comparison to her life story. She  strongly believes that gender does not and should play a role in an individual's career. However  one of the major reasons she did not become a journalism major was because her male professor  told her that he would not give her a spot in the major. She was told that women do not actually  make use of their education and end up wasting it as when they get married and become  homemakers. We would be interested to ask what exactly made her want to switch to journalism  and the first place. Also we would like to explore more about her opinions on gender.   We would love to receive an update on the outcome of her current project with Human  Rights Network. At the end of the interview she explained to us about the she was currently  editing. The report was about the documentation of human rights violation cases in China. A  draft was already submitted to the United Nations. The report was made public about two weeks  after the interview. We would love to know if her report was able to make any waves or cause  10  �any change once the final report was published and sent again to the United Nations. We also  would be interested to hear about any other up and coming projects with the Human Rights  Network.   What other in­class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain  Presentations during class were useful in highlighting how much women can accomplish  regarding, but not limited to, US­Asian relations. Personally, I (Ericka) found the presentation on  Mary David incredibly moving and useful. Considering how young she appears, she has  accomplished an extreme amount through shedding light on human trafficking. She does this in  creative ways such as pageants, spoken word, and other forms of art. This allows her to share her  knowledge in schools and other areas where a standard presentation on human trafficking may  not have normally been allowed. Through her work, she is educating the youth, which will help  to better identify victims of trafficking ­ something that is particularly useful in the fight to end  it. She also identifies as a “woman helping the world,” and does not define herself to just Asian  or just American. If I had not been assigned to interview Jennifer Chou, I would have loved to  interview Mary David to learn about all of her work.  I (Drazen), also found Mary David intriguing. She uses her platform as a dancer, beauty  contestant, and spoken­word performer to bring human trafficking to light. One of the hardest  parts about advocating for a cause is creating a dialogue between yourself and the target  audience. Mary David is captivating by her many talents and her physical beauty. I think she has  a great advantage because I can imagine younger girls aspiring to be like her. She in turn,  educates the younger generation, and allows people to talk freely about her mission.   11  �Another interview I learned from was Nancy Davis Lewis’. Although the interview “went  wrong in every way possible,” I found this to be helpful for future interviews. I learned that the  group has timing issues, as the interview was held on daylight savings. Apparently, Hawaii does  not follow daylight savings, so it made using Adobe connect awkward because the scheduled  time that the group agreed on, wasn’t mutual because of this technicality. Looking back, our  group didn’t ask if Ms. Chou was in the Eastern time zone, so this problem could have happened  to us, but luckily did not. This is something I will definitely make sure to clarify if I conduct an  interview via Adobe Connect again!    12  � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Chou, Jennifer ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_jchou_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baracca, Drazen ; Dorsey, Raven ; Berman, Ericka ; Miller, Megan Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Jennifer Chou https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/451bba5730658c0e9684f70a6569eb48.pdf 6753a053d149747ec841066a5724e585 PDF Text Text �Ms. Chou’s mission was to help people through uncovering human rights violations by bringing them into the spotlight. She is fulfilling this through her work in founding and having been the Deputy Director of Programming at Radio Free Asia, a network that reports on news that the mainstream news media does not cover. Although she has recently retired, she is now starting to work with the Human Rights Network, which is also centered around acknowledging human rights violations in order for them to be fixed. Her mission relates to women's roles in US-Asian relations because of her part as a woman in acknowledging human rights violations. Many times, women suffer from these violations, which Ms. Chou works to bring to the public’s attention. For example, one man Ms. Chou worked with was protesting against forced abortions to meet the quota for China's one family one child policy, something that infringes upon a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. From Ms. Chou, we learned that her Confucian society often discouraged her from becoming a career woman, which was an idea that was thoroughly discussed in class. Confucian society enforced harsh gender roles that women are supposed to remain unseen and in the home. According to Confucian society, women’s primary roles are to fulfill domestic responsibilities such as cleaning, cooking, and childrearing. In addition, women are expected to remain mostly subservient, all while the husband works for the family as the primary bread-winner. Ms. Chou covered lots of new information we had not previously covered �in class. Her advice focused mostly on not letting disadvantages get in the way of pursuing one’s dreams. She firmly stated during the interview that hard work got her where she is, and being a female minority did not play a role in hindering or helping her progress. �During out interview, we began by asking questions about Ms Chou's background because we wanted to gain context about her life. She is an accomplished individual and we wanted to find where her inspiration and drive came from. We also wanted to know how she went about achieving her life goals. The most interesting thing about our interview is that she went into great detail while answering our short prompts--we think that this is due to her background in journalism. Every answer she provided for us was extremely insightful, and on our end, we did a lot of active listening. For example, when we asked about her background and where she grew up, it was natural for us to ask what influence her parents had on the choices she made that eventually led to her career as a journalist. Post interview, we were fortunate because she gave us a lot of information based on the open ended questions that we asked. Despite our own previous knowledge of Radio Free Asia, she persisted to including more background, such as being based off of Radio Free Europe, and how she was approached to be a founder. During the interview, we did not have one set person who asked all of the questions. We each jumped in to ask and respond where we felt necessary, and, in addition, we all took our own �notes. Unfortunately, we did have one problem with the interview. On occasion, Ms. Chou’s audio would fade out. Fortunately, her answers were so well-spoken that we were able to fill in the gaps if we missed some information. So, to sum up our experience, although we had questions lined up before the interview, a lot of our questions during it were based off of her responses, and we developed more of a dialogue rather than a yes or no question scenario. Active listening was very evident because we were all taking notes, and each of us provided at least one probing question after receiving her response. We all showed interest in her life and each of us found a topic that was particularly interesting and that caused us to ask more questions. One important thing to note is how she downplayed her gender discrimination. Being told by the department chair of journalism that transfer spots are limited and should be reserved for men because they would not eventually leave their careers to have a family could have been a barrier that stopped women from pursuing journalism, but it did not stop Ms. Chou. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Chou, Jennifer ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_jchou_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baracca, Drazen ; Dorsey, Raven ; Berman, Ericka ; Miller, Megan Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Jennifer Chou https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/e1fe85941d552ce1020dd71ce040402a.pptx b42cee1b5c83898243536c9ce1f43706 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Chou, Jennifer ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2015_20160815_jchou_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Baracca, Drazen ; Dorsey, Raven ; Berman, Ericka ; Miller, Megan Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Jennifer Chou https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/5e7bdfad43ec05bd9bd5c2a6a8f2807f.pdf b9bee90e783082fad0b97b48c1d46f26 PDF Text Text Denisse Ceballos, Ayodele Ajibade POL/AAS 307 SECTION ONE Person Interviewed: Madelyn Ross Interviewee’s title or position: Madelyn Ross current position is Director of Hopkins-Nanjing Center Washington D.C. and Associate Director of John Hopkins School of Advance International Studies (SAIS) China. She has experience in US-China relations including education, economics and government relations. Date: Friday November 18, 2016 Time, and length of interview: 47:57 Via Audio Recording Your objective in conducting this interview: Our objectives for conducting this interview is very similar to the objectives of this course. We wanted to examine the role Madelyn Ross plays in U.S.-Asian relations as a women and what experiences has she had throughout her life that brought her to where she is now. Also, we wanted to know the knowledge of the different ways women have made an impact on the relationships between U.S. and the many nations in Asia. This interview would help us speak with a primary source directly and learn just how U.S- and Asian relations have changed. We also wished to share some of the knowledge we received from our interviewee. SECTION TWO �With a little help from Professor Christoff, she told us how Madelyn Ross was one of the first students to arrive in China from America once President Carter normalized relations. Afterwards, we decided to google our interviewee. The first thing that came up was her LinkedIn page. From there, we found out the basics of her life. Madelyn Ross went to Princeton University in obtaining a BA in East Asian Studies. Also, she went to Columbia University in the City of New York to obtain her MA in International Affairs. It was intriguing to see how she went to Fudan University where she earned a certificate in modern Chinese literature. Subsequently, we looked at her experience and were captivated by them all. Firstly, she was an Editor-in-Chief of the China Business Review and Executive Director of the China Business Forum. We were astonished how she went to the business field since the page didn’t even mention her earning that degree. Secondly, she was an Editor in Washington Journal of Modern China, Director of China initiatives and China Coordinator and the Director of Global Consortium before her current position. We knew that her passion was to create dialogues and friendships that will help illuminate China to America and America to China. From all these experiences, we were able to construct questions for the interview. While we were creating the questions to ask her, we decided to organize in regards to a chronological perspective. We broke it into three parts; Childhood, Education, and Career Path/Reflections. We sent Madelyn a couple of questions prior to the interview to make her feel more prepared and comfortable. Also, it was to give her a sense of the direction we were going. The questions we sent her are listed below: Childhood 1. Is there any significant event or family member in your childhood that sparked your interest in China? 2. How would you describe U.S. and Asian relations when you were our age? �Education and Studies in China 1. Was Asian studies your initial major in your undergrad? (Did you change majors?) 2. What did the normalization of U.S.-China relations mean to you? Career Path and Reflections 1. How would you describe your responsibilities as Director of Hopkins-Nanjing Center Washington Office? 2. Could you give us an example of when you fought for a certain cause and how did you feel about the situation and outcome? While we sent her these questions, we prepared more because we wanted to be ready and show her how engrossed we were in her life. The questions listed below are what we made to ask her and didn’t send it to her: Childhood 1. What college did you go to? 2. Did you have any experiences that influenced your interest in Asian studies? (We didn’t ask this because she answered that question while we were talking) 3. Could you tell us about your education path before college? (We didn’t ask this because she answered that question while we were talking) Education and Studies in China 1. Was Asian Studies your initial major in your undergrad? 2. Being an American in China; Pros? Cons? Misconceptions? (if you could give us any example) 3. Were there any difficulties or challenges with language? Was it easy to communicate or were people not accepting? Any challenges you faced in China? �4. What graduate school did she go to? 5. Did you study economics in China? 6. Seeing how you study economics, in your opinion what is your biggest issues concerning the economy in China? (Past and Present) 7. How does it affect women in China? Career Path and Reflections 1. How would you describe your responsibilities as director for SAIS China? 2. Who would you consider your role model in sense to women in general, in Asia and/or US? 3. What advice would you give someone who is pursuing your field of study? SECTION THREE Did you get complete answers to your questions? Yes. majority of Madelyn Ross’s answers were packed with background information that gave us the big picture. Yet, constantly, after all was said she would conclude her statement with a clear answer to our question. Some questions that we hoped to get more information from some specific questions but instead were given a general answer. Instead of moving on, we would ask the question again hoping to get an opposing idea. This mainly occurred during the second part of the interview when we wanted to know about her experiences in China. Was your interview structured, unstructured, or mixed? Our interview was a mix of structured and unstructured. We split the interview into three parts concerning Madelyn Ross’s life experiences and her opinions about certain topics pertaining to �women and U.S.-Asian relations, especially China, relations. There was a slight order that we wanted to follow, with the first segment revolving around her childhood, the second segment about her education and her studies in China, and third segment which focused on her career path and reflections. The first part of the interview consisted of non-structured questions that jumped between asking about the person that influenced her significantly as a child to asking her to describe the relationship between China and the United States. Similarly, the first segment and the second segment of the interview were not in any specific order. Instead, it was very unstructured because some questions asked during this part lead us on a tangent. From any tangent, we would ask follow up questions that were not under our list of questions. What probing questions did you use? The probing questions we a bit difficult to create when we tried sticking to the format given in the PowerPoint provided on Blackboard. This was because it seemed like the probing questions described in the document were centered around first, getting a response from the interviewee and then following up with a probing question. Creating the probing questions became a lot easier after we read the slide notes that better explained this style of questions. We asked her if she had experiences with any misconceptions of the Chinese people that were proven wrong while she was in China. In her answer, she told that she knew that China had been a difficult place to live during the cultural revolution but didn’t know the personal feelings of the people living there. She then explained how she learned more about the sufferings and emotions of the people because of her experience in Fudan University. This question allowed us to get more information about the cultural shock she experienced, saying “I got to Shanghai and it was like �going into a time capsule”. Some more probing questions were, how does the economy of China affect women in China and how she felt after fighting for a certain cause. Explain your team approach. That is, who did what? Our team is very dynamic and impromptu. This helps us get out of tough situations quickly but at the same time makes us run into more tough situations that could be eased with better planning. This characteristic affected our approach. From sending Madelyn Ross the very first email to concluding the skype call, our main goal was to keep Madelyn Ross comfortable with us. This is significantly shown in the beginning of our interview where we ask her about her day, aiming to break any “ice” or tenseness between us. The question making responsibility was divided between both of us evenly. For the interview, Denisse oversaw asking the childhood questions while Ayodele oversaw asking the education and her studies in China questions. However, during the interview we decided to take turns asking questions. Did the interviewee give you any documents or references to articles to read, or did she mention other people for you to talk to (or research)? No, she didn’t give us any documents or references to read. However, she did mention Ding Ling’s name while giving us her background information before getting to her point which we greatly appreciated her doing. In the final part of the interview Madelyn Ross made a very admirable statement that we took as great advice. When we asked her about what advice she would give a person pursuing the same field as her, she said, “Having an open mind towards seeing all sides of a problem is important. Go see the world and get to know how other people live. Put in the time to learn the language”. �SECTION FOUR Interview Notes: • Ice Breaker o How was your day? Ask about weather o Introduce ourselves and tell her about our majors o Told her our undergraduate year Childhood • High school student around the 1970sà graduate in 1975 • 15 years old when President Nixon went to China o (Huge impression and her smiling) • Loves to study languageà took French and Spanish in high school • Didn’t learn Mandarin in High School since they didn’t offer it • Grandfather born in Russia influenced her interest in China o Disenchanted with Russia o Became more interested in China version of communism • Only applied to colleges who offered ChineseàPrinceton had the best Chinese program • Perry Link was her first Chinese Professor she ever had o He was a non-Asian person who spoke fluent Chinese o Found him very inspiring • Very interested in American studies (Latin America) o Especially Brazil • Loved learning the language Education and her studies in China • In the summer of her Junior year, she went to Taiwan to study Chinese o Couldn’t go to China since there was no normalized relation between us-china • Senior year, wrote her thesis of Ding Ling o Ding Ling was a writer and novelist during the 1930s. Her article was condemned by Mao Zedong because she questioned the party’s commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. During the late 1950s anti-writer campaign, she was outspoken and was punished where she was sent down to the country side. She disappeared. During the 1970s, Madelyn became interested in her writing. She even wrote her thesis paper on her. She reemerged by 1979. • In the middle of her senior year, President Carter normalized relations with China. January 1979 • Applied for Princeton’s fellowship called Sachs Scholarship because she wanted to go to China o The scholarship is only given to one graduating senior o She won it • She met Ding Ling while she was in China o Sounded very excited �• • • • • • • • • • • • • Culture shock: o airport small, very dark. Going back to time capsule. Not many cars; only old Russian cars. Very few lights. Bicycle everywhere. Big eye opener She was one of the first people on the front line when she visited China People in China were warm and welcoming o People who weren’t living in cities were afraid of foreigners due to the Culture Revolution o Many people who didn’t speak Mandarin outside of the city o Having foreign friends could land you in jail Denisse’s phone rang (should have put it in silent) Between August 1979 to August 1980: the economy in china was finally starting to open to the west. She wanted to understand how the economy work, how international trade and international business worked. She wanted to be part of the US-China economic opening. Her phone rang which made Denisse more comfortable When she graduated from Columbia, she went to Hong Kong for one year to work in the Bank of America doing economic research on China especially on Chinese provinces. o Chinese statistic wasn’t reliable back then. She was working with a group providing providential economic so that business people who wanted to go to China learned that if you wanted to trade in light industry places where, what was the agriculture, industry in these different providential economic. She asked if we were taking notes.; we forgot to tell her that we were recording her o She was very understanding and only said it because she was throwing allot of information to us Editor of China Review o She was writing stories about the businesses between US-China Kept her eyes on us when we were asking her questions “Women hold up the sky” She sees women as coming from a long way. They are participating in all levels of professional life. One interesting development is the changing attitudes towards marriage. Women used to focus on marrying well and finding a good husband. Now they are putting their careers first. o Attitude towards divorce was frowned upon in the past but now it is skyrocketing Rushed because she had another commitment to attend. o Asked for a copy of Final o Asked if we have any more questions we can email her and schedule another chat o Super friendly and kind SECTION FIVE Your analysis: What aspects of the interview did you find to be particularly meaningful? What aspects were not useful? What more would you like to know? What other in-class presentations did you find particularly useful? Explain �This assignment was, without a doubt, a huge pleasure and joy. Not only were we able to learn about some of the most inspirational and respected women who have an impact on U.S.-Asian relations, this assignment allowed us to experience speaking with one of these women first hand. Interviewing Madelyn Ross opened windows that we wouldn’t have opened through just papers. Her ability to remember the events she mentioned in the interview is very remarkable and was very useful for this assignment. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we had to minimize our interview length and get all that we could with the time we had. She was very cooperative and wonderful to listen to. Professor Christoff mentioned right after our interview asked us if we knew about Madelyn Ross’s YouTube channel. We did not know she had a YouTube channel and even after a quick search we could not find it; something we wished we could have asked Madelyn about in the interview. During the in-class presentations we heard about other women and the group’s processes. Presenters like Julie/Danielle, who spoke about Jennifer Staats, Matt/Alejandra, who spoke about Hodei Sultan, and many others spoke about women involved in the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Jennifer Straats was described to be very optimistic and was, ironically, the one who started the interview with Julie/Danielle. the idea of the interviewer becoming the interviewee was very interesting. Many of the presenters said that ,in their interview, the interviewee described issues coming from age and little to none from gender which greatly surprised all of us. We were surprised because after that was said, the interviewee would answer probing questions with answers that clearly described gender inequality. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ross, Madelyn ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_mross_doc_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ceballos, Denisse ; Ajibade, Ayodele Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Madelyn Ross https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/d96dd6c4e7e0ba33520718e7b41cd331.pdf 9c9117208d49cc26e7ea769f734a68b4 PDF Text Text 1 �2 �3 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ross, Madelyn ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_mross_ppt_dis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ceballos, Denisse ; Ajibade, Ayodele Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Madelyn Ross https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/f49295733a67a07734d53144612410d3.pptx 24eb862c2b0ba216b65a3daa61526325 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_mross_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ceballos, Denisse ; Ajibade, Ayodele ; Ross, Madelyn Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Madelyn Ross https://exhibits.library.stonybrook.edu/WUA/files/original/c8ece28d028c1bd6fc49179ff860fc60.pptx 3edcd15f6c6b4a59c5fce353bd8f6f64 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in US-Asian Relations Student Oral History Project Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Larson, Jane Leung ; Christoff, Peggy Spitzer -- Senior Lecturer, China Studies. Director of Undergraduate Programs: Asian And Asian American Studies. Subject The topic of the resource Asian Americans--Study and teaching; Women social reformers--Asia; Women social reformers--United States; Oral history Relation A related resource AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject; AAS_POL_307_OralHistoryProject_2016 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/). Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/ppt Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context aas_2016_20170109_jleunglarson_master Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016 Description An account of the resource Every fall, students at Stony Brook University in class, AAS/POL 307 (Women in US-Asian Relations), set out to interview women who are committed to enhancing US-Asian relations. Women’s contributions occur at many different levels of society and encompass a variety of occupations. In conducting oral history interviews, students prepare documentation for the Stony Brook University Melville Library’s digital collection and, in the process, acquire deep knowledge about women’s social, cultural, political, and economic roles in the United States and Asia, which includes those in Asian American communities. Each interview consists of multiple files, including: a text document and Powerpoint slides, which were converted to PDFs for this digitization project. The project is a joint effort between the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and the University Libraries. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chan, Paul ; Lee, Kevin Type The nature or genre of the resource text Title A name given to the resource Jane Leung Larson