I was very inspired by class today to research the lost narratives of shape-shifters in academia and other facets of American Popular culture. After class, I got on Google and started researching keywords that related to my own personal life and academic interests, starting first with "LGBT Politics and Rights". It is no surprise that Wikipedia was one of the first links to pop up with an article related to the issue. After clicking around from one Wiki-link to another within the articles, I ended up on the Wikipedia page for the Trevor Project, a national collaborative project aimed at preventing suicide within the LGBT community. As I read through the history of the project, I noticed that two of the three founders had wikilinks to them, but one did not. It did not surprise me that the two founders with links were James Lescene and Randy Stone, and the one without a link was Peggy Rajski. Peggy Rajski is a director and professor at NYU Tisch School of Arts who has had a long standing connection with the LGBT community mediated through her artistic endeavors. She has won an Oscar for her work in creating a live action short film named Trevor about a gay boy who attempts suicide because he feels he doesn't fit in. This short film ultimately led to establishing the Trevor Project. While conducting some preliminary research about her work, I read an article that discussed the Trevor Project, claiming that "the Trevor Project was founded by writer James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski, and producer Randy Stone". I was immediately taken back to Professor Cartwright's point in class today highlighting that whiteness (and malenesss) is the default. Why were the two men identified as producer and writer, while acknowledging Peggy Rajski's professional identity as a Director was viewed as irrelevant?
Anyways, I do not know how ambitious I sound at the moment but I am going to attempt to create a Wikipedia page for Peggy Rajski. If anyone would like to collaborate with me on this project or has any suggestions, please feel free to contribute to the discussion or contact me!
It's a great idea to ask for collaborators in the class. Often you will find more sources that way, and it always helps to have another pair of eyes to help with the prose. More than one student can work on the same article. Of course you will likely have different experiences to report as you compose and revise together.
ReplyDeletePhilip, how is it going with this? Let us know in class on Tuesday if you still want some collaborators. This is too good an idea to pass up!
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