some things i'm involved in at GSE

1. asian american/pacific islanders in education -- we're a small GSE student group.  our meetings span a variety of interests from talking about what we're doing in school, to talking about issues important to the aapi community, to getting together and eating at a restaurant.  if you're interested in joining, contact me or look for listings in GSE's weekly newsletter 'InsideGSE.'

2. GSEcret -- this is a collaborative project between three GSE student groups: aaagse (the association for african american graduate students in education), aapie (asian americans/pacific islanders in education), and wscr (white students confronting racism).  the project spans this academic year and the goal is to get GSE folks in a dialogue about race and racism in their lives and at GSE.  this fall, we've posted posters that advertise the project.  each poster holds postcards that anyone can pick up.  the backs of the postcards are blank and we're asking people to draw or write stories, questions, and experiences related to race that they've had.  people can anonymously drop these postcards in the orange boxes around GSE.  this spring, we plan to exhibit these postcards as part of an exhibition/discussion event.  if you're interested in participating, you can contact postagsecret@gmail.com.

3. the teach-in project -- i guess this project is my baby.  ali michael and i are working together though to implement it.  the goal is to encourage out-of-classroom spaces of learning, examination, and discussion into issues that pertain to the lives of students, staff, and faculty both in the space of GSE and in our everyday lives.  anyone is welcome to facilitate a teach-in.  you can read more about this here: melissakapadiabodi.com/op.html.  if you have any questions, contact me!

my current research interests and things that i'm thinking about right now

1. as a member of GSE's academic support staff, i've been really fascinated by the intersections of writing, power, identity, and social positioning in the support staff person's experience of the academy.  in spring 2009, i did a small study and wrote a paper about a few support staff members' ideas about and experiences of writing at work.  looking at workplace writing on a small scale, as well as comparing to my own workplace writing and connecting it to ideas about ownership and power was really interesting work.  i hope to do more work on this topic in the future, including further studies and writing.  i also plan to teach some writing workshops to GSE staff in spring 2010.

2. i'm also interested in asian pacific american and immigrant identity construction, understandings of social positioning, feelings of othering, and notions of success.  i'm still in the beginning stages in this strand of work.

nine facts about me

1. although i was arguably the best speller in my 5th grade class, often winning "spelling bee baseball," i am currently opposed to the concept of "proper/standard english" and am madly in love with a "poor speller."

2. i love to cook and bake and often use them as stress therapy, i.e. i'll probably be blogging about food and cooking around finals time.

3. "ethnically" indian, i was born in the united arab emirates where i lived until age 7.  once moving to the states, i lived in baltimore, md, cherry hill, nj, west chester, pa, mechanicsburg, pa, and philly.  i don't necessarily believe that indian is just one ethnicity anymore.

4. even though i was an english major as an undergrad and i'm now a reading/writing/literacy student, i'm actually way better at math than anything, at least in terms of standardized test scores (what does this mean, anyway?).

5. my favorite kind of food is mexican and my favorite mexican restaurant in philly is jose's on 10th street (not to be confused with jose pistola's on 15th street, though that's pretty good, too).  another good mexican place, which is on campus, is the mexi-cali truck on 38th and walnut.

6. my favorite thing to do on a friday night is to stay in and watch a movie with my husband.

7. i like blogging in lower case.

8. i've just begun teaching some workshops independently.  right now, i'm teaching a workshop called "asian american experience" through asian arts initiative, a local philadelphia youth-serving arts organization.  i'm aiming for a workshop per semester and one or two over the summer.  i'm really excited to teach more reading/writing workshops.

9. i want to be an organic farmer one day.