海角社区

Over the summer months, I worked as an Intern with 海角社区-based organization, Poetry Matters. This initiative focuses on the exploration of poetry and its importance in a contemporary context. Working with supervisor and professor Miranda Hickman, I was able to contribute to this endeavour as an Intern. Our main focus over the summer was researching and developing a portrait of Trinidadian-born Dr. Barbara Althea Jones, a poet, artist, performer, activist and professor of genetics at 海角社区 in the 60s. As an English major in the literature stream, I jumped at this chance to work on research that was related to my field. Internship opportunities that blend research and poetry are not common, and coming across such an opportunity on the AIO website was a pleasant surprise. It was a chance to gain new research and work skills while also doing something I love: reading

and analyzing poetry. Not to mention, learning about Dr. Jones鈥� incredible influence and accomplishments across communities was an incredible gift. Being from Belize, getting this opportunity to celebrate Jones鈥� life, the life of a fellow Caribbean woman, has been a wonderfully fulfilling experience I will cherish as an integral part of my time at university.

At the start of the internship, we jumped right into it and started reading all the available archival material on Dr. Jones held at Rare Books and the University Archives. Archival research is an interesting experience to say the least. Beginning the internship, I was excited to dive in and learn everything that could be even slightly relevant to Dr. Jones and her life. At first, I took notes on anything and everything. Quickly, I began to realize I would never be able to finish reading through all the material if I continued this way. Learning to separate what I found interesting from what was most relevant and necessary was one of the most important lessons I learned about research. After a few weeks, it was important to keep reminding myself of the task at hand and to focus on what would be most useful in developing my understanding of Dr. Jones. I also understood the necessity of being as precise as possible when tracking and keeping note of a document's location in the archival material. If file numbers and box numbers are not tracked, it is easy to lose information among a sea of papers which makes citing your information when developing writing impossible.

Apart from reading through archival material, we were also responsible for attending weekly meetings at which findings were exchanged and plans for the following week were established. This meant that I had to keep track of our progress and think of avenues for further study depending on what seemed interesting or promising. These weekly exchanges of ideas and developments built collaboration and helped keep me on track. Towards the end of the internship, we started thinking about what would be important to include in a portrait.

This internship has given me invaluable research experience that will undoubtedly prove useful to me for the rest of my academic career. The funds received through the Dean of Arts Development Fund Award have allowed me to concentrate solely on the task at hand without having to worry about costs of transportation or materials. I was able to fully immerse myself in this experience. Thank you to Dean Lisa Shapiro.聽