learning journal 02.27: inquiry conference

I attended the Cultural Influences on Qualitative Methods panel at the Inquiry Conference, which provided some interesting food for thought about field studies in general. It was neat to see how individual the project were; of the four presenters I saw, each of their projects were unique and seemed tailored to their courses of study. Field studies really can apply to any student who is willing to put some decent thought into a project--anywhere from creative writing to statistics (here's to you, Ari!). All in all, the Inquiry Conference made me even more excited to be in the field.

A couple of the presenters' projects were particularly interesting to me: Natalie Schultheis' project about maternal hopes and expectations for their daughters in rural Mexico and Rebekah Monahan's project about societal food changes in German food culture. Natalie's presentation was interesting because of the insight it gave into rural Mexican women's views on marriage and education. Many times we take for granted all the opportunities for education we have in the USA, and that we (women and men alike) are encouraged to get an education. While that is true, it was also neat to hear what those women wanted for their daughters--whether or not it was education and a career or marriage, they wanted their daughters to be secure and to be taken care of. This shows that no matter how different they may be when it comes to views on marriage and education, essentially we're all the same; we all want the best for our families, and mothers want their daughters to be secure and safe whether you're talking about a rural Mexican town or big city in the USA. While our some value systems may be different, we still love family. 

Also, food. Yes, Rebekah's presentation was really neat. Some of it was expected--I expected to hear about the limited food supply and all that, but what I didn't expect was that the German women actually felt nostalgic about the times when food was simpler because that was all there was available--they saw that once the food limitations were lifted, there were more allergies and health problems because people didn't eat as simply and healthily. This is something we (Americans) have a hard time with, I think. We get used to having everything available, year-round, at the grocery store, and we forget about simple, in-season, and moderation. Because I'm interested in food writing (well, food in general), I really enjoyed this presentation. 

And the Inquiry Conference in general. Good times.