IUPUI is Indiana's premier urban research university. The campus enrolls more than 30,000 students in 21 schools and academic units.
Why it all matters
The last several weeks have been a bit of a blur. My fellow researchers and I have been rushing to finish final projects, which consist of a poster and a final research paper. In the archaeology lab we have just finished cataloging all of the finds from the dig; outside of the lab we have each spent hours researching our various topics.
Last Wednesday each of us had to attend a poster session in the Campus Center, and finally show everyone else what we have been working on the entire summer. It was slightly unnerving at first, nearly all of the other presenters represented the life sciences and my friends and I seemed to be the only social sciences. As I stood next to other presenters who had subjects pertaining to cancer research and public health I had to remind myself why the research that Alex, Jordan, Lisa and myself had undertaken mattered.
Much of the research I have completed for the archaeological dig, and the MURI research program, in my view, pertains to matter of structural violence and inequality. For those of you unfamiliar with such terminology, structural violence is institutionalized classism, racism, or sexism that results in the political and social oppression or economic exploitation of peoples. In the United States such people have generally been women, people of color, and the poor. My final paper and poster presentation discussed how perceptions of race and poverty, and what constitutes a “slum”, were contributing factors in the urban renewal projects that changed the face of Indiana Avenue and the ground that IUPUI now stands on.
Alex, Jordan and Lisa researched topics concerning sanitation on the avenue, the demographics of the neighborhood, and the influence of Madame Walker’s, arguably the first African American millionaire, home and factory on the avenue. In my mind the entire summer has been about working against the common narrative and stereotypes, to attempt to give a voice to the voiceless, and craft a narrative that is more in keeping with the perceptions of the people who lived on the avenue. We’ve attempted to do this by talking to those who once lived in the area or on the avenue, the excavation of Madame Walker’s factory and an alley house, and by reviewing historical records and literature.
It is not my purpose to give a rose colored view of the avenue, and to say that people living on the avenue were not poor. Only that who is considered "impoverished," and what is considered “urban blight” are powerful forces in public policy. There is no universal reality in reference to poverty or blight, and because of this such perceptions can be twisted to fit a group of people, often for political or social reasons. Problems that people are not aware of cannot be fixed, history that is untold cannot be learned from. This is why our research mattered.
So as I stood during the poster presentations I tried not to feel too out of place. Alex, Jordan, Lisa and I did not have a plethora of scientific terminology to throw around. Our work would not aid in curing cancer or other ailments, but perhaps it would contribute, in its own minute way , to leveling the playing field. It would aid in giving a voice back to those who had none. After all, what good are advances in medical science when structural violence denies so many people access to them?
“"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life." - Jane Addams
