Author Archives: Hannah Peirce

Gender and Transportation

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This past week I attended the Rose Cafe with GRF Seema in which she spoke about her research in urban/transportation planning as it relates to gender in the developing world. Her field is not one which I know much about, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into the talk. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant I found it to my own interests. I am personally very passionate about feminism and social justice. Hearing about the impact of gender-related issues on a domain that I hadn’t thought of previously really made me consider more the ways in which our society is designed around certain gender roles and objectives.

In the talk, she really focussed on the differing needs of men and women based on their roles within society. At first, this struck me the wrong way, as I thought that catering to these gender roles via infrastructure may serve to reaffirm them. However, it makes sense that adapting the infrastructure to allow women to leave the home could be a step in actually moving away from these gender roles over time. Building on this, Seema also spoke about solutions for violence against women on public transport, as well as some of the other challenges faced by women when it comes to transportation, specifically the creation of female-only transit options. Our discussion about these solutions was quite diverse, and it was really interesting to hear the multiple perspectives.

Overall, I really enjoyed GRF Seema’s talk, and I look forward to hearing more about the GRF’s research next semester.

Lettuce Learn about Hydroponics

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Last week I attended the Rose Cafe about Cornell-grown hydroponic lettuce. Overall, I wasn’t really looking forward to the lecture, given that agriculture is not really my field of interest, but I ended up finding it quite interesting. I found the semi-interactive portion of this cafe to be quite cool, as we got to eat the lettuce at dinner prior to learning about the agricultural process behind it. The lettuce itself was very tasty, and, as the lecturer briefly mentioned, I found it to be somewhat sweeter and more tender than conventionally farmed greens. The lecturer did a good job of explaining the process in an approachable way, and the imagery she provided did a great job of making the science clearer and more visible.

One thing that the lecturer did not touch on as much was the potential economic or environmental impact of this kind of farming. I would really like to know more about  how hydroponics fits in with our current needs as a society in terms of food production and climate change.

I am always pleasantly surprised by the variety of research taking place on Cornell campus, and the hydroponics mentioned in this cafe was no exception.

Modern Primitives

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Last week I attended the Rose Cafe hosted by GRF Sam. Sam’s talk focused on his work with modern primitives, specifically in how art and literature can function as relics of colonialism through the intersection of the modern and the primitive. During the cafe, he showed us a variety of visuals which were designed to make us consider the way we think about the terms “modern” and “primitive”. One image that I found particularly striking was a photograph of a large room with a high ceiling which contained many primitive objects housed in a variety of rectangular glass cases. This photograph was taken in a way which, at first glance, more resembled a department store than a museum. As Sam pointed out the function of class in the idea of a museum, which is designed more for middle or upper class individuals, as it combines with the idea of displaying post-colonial cultures and peoples as collections of stolen objects, I thought that the suggestion of this image as a department store was particularly poignant.

While Sam’s entire talk was quite fascinating, I personally found his discussion of museum exhibits to be the most impactful. As a person who has spent much time in museums and generally enjoys visiting them, this portion of his talk made me question my own role in certain problematic practices. Sam made valid points about how the way curators construct museum exhibits designed to represent primitive cultures is often influenced strongly by colonial ideologies. This really made me reconsider how I have thought about primitive art displays in museums I have visited in the past, and encouraged me to be more thoughtful about my own perception of these exhibits in the future.

Overall, I really enjoyed last week’s cafe. I was pleasantly surprised to see a field such as Sam’s represented, as the cafes can often be kind of repetitive in terms of which fields they encompass. It sometimes seems as if the Rose Cafe selection is dominated by talks about either agricultural research or general life advice. It was mentioned that there may be more talks being given by GRFs about their research, and I am really looking forward to seeing more diversity.

Creating a Online Professional Persona

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Last week I attended the mini-seminar on creating an online professional persona. Given that I’m starting to think about applying to graduate schools, I’ve been wanting to develop my online presence to suit this purpose. This seminar was really ideal for what I had in mind.

In the seminar, GRF Sam discussed the ways in which you could use social media for professional purposes, as well as more mainstream professional networking sites like linkedin or academia.edu. He also gave instruction about how to write professional bios, and which kinds of information and phrasing might be appropriate depending on the site. Bio writing is something I always struggle with, so it was great to get some direct tips and feedback from Sam about my content. I also learned that academia.edu is more suited to my needs than linkedin, which was a really valuable piece of information. For me, it was great to get professional advice like this from someone who was more familiar with academia as opposed to other sectors. In this way, the seminar was really suited to my needs.

Overall, I found the seminar helpful, and have been equally satisfied with other seminars on related professional development topics I have attended at Rose in the past. I have found these events to be very valuable and strongly recommend others check them out in the future.

Dining at Rose

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Last week’s Rose Cafe featured Hans Butler, the chef at Rose House. Since the talk was less populated than usual, probably as a result of fall break, it was a great opportunity to have a really open discussion. I really enjoyed hearing from Hans about his vision for Rose house, and learning about the work that goes on behind the scenes at Rose House Dining. I’ve always enjoyed dinners at Rose, and eat there almost exclusively, but I had no idea the lengths Hans goes to to ensure that we are getting fresh, quality meals. It was also interesting to hear how Hans’ work at Rose goes beyond just producing great food. Hans talked about how he likes to cook Middle Eastern and South American food at Rose because it is underrepresented on campus, which I think is an excellent and perhaps underrated way to promote diversity/inclusivity on campus.

Hans also described one program that was particularly impressive, which allows Rose House Dining to get fresh seafood from fisherman located in Boston. I have always enjoyed the quantity of seafood that is available at Rose, and so I love to hear that the program which brings in the product is committed to both freshness and sustainability. Overall, I am very impressed with Rose Dining and it is a part of my experience on campus at Cornell for which I am very grateful.

Ruth Magreta and Agriculture in Rural Malawi

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Last week I attended the Rose Cafe with Ruth Magreta, a visiting fellow from the STAARS program. Ruth is from a village in Malawi, and is currently a doctoral student studying agriculture and resource economics. I found her talk to be very inspiring, and when she spoke of how she got where she is, I was struck by Ruth’s strength, resilience, and determination. She mentioned many times that, while she did endure struggles during her childhood, she did not realize the magnitude of them until after she had more exposure to the rest of the world. Hearing her speak about her early experiences, it was impossible not to notice her love for her village and country. Ruth was never negative about her upbringing. Instead, she spoke about how her background has motivated her to study maize farmers effected by climate change. The personal connection she brings to her work is so evident, and I could not help but to be inspired by her dedication to improving the lives of others.

I am so glad that I was able to hear Ruth’s talk. She is an amazing woman who is clearly capable of effecting significant change. From what I’ve heard, it seems that she is a force to be reckoned with.

Justice and the Judicial System

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During the cafe, which was structured more like a Q and A this week, Judge Miller pointed out the different oaths taken by prosecutors and defense attorneys. According to these oaths, prosecutors must seek justice while defense attorneys must defend their clients zealously. It seems to me that this discrepancy highlights the intrinsic bias of the judicial system. Prosecutors do not have to do their duty “zealously”, and the defense attorneys do not have as much responsibility to the truth. So, as he spoke, the more I thought about how “justice” is often not the actual outcome.

Given the current controversies surrounding our judicial system, I cannot help but to connect this idea to the numerous police violence cases where, despite seemingly overwhelming video evidence, the accused were acquitted. In these cases, it seems that the adversarial system worked against justice.

While our society is inherently biased, it should be the chief objective of our judicial system not to be. Instead, it is systematically positioned for bias. Perhaps then one of the first steps to reaching social equality should be to demonstrate equality in our courts, focusing on the truth above all else.