Theorist Gayatri Spivak asks: "Can the sub-altern ever speak for themselves in an authentic voice that has not been co-opted?" There appears to be a theory answering to this haunting social question, and Emerson scholar Alexis Mann, '05, believes wholeheartedly that providing all citizens with the opportunity to obtain secondary education will give the disadvantaged a voice.
Oftentimes, disadvantaged, impoverished or minority citizens are denied a chance at secondary education; therefore, they continue to dwell in poverty. Their offspring, growing up in poverty, also suffer economically and socially as they are denied education. However, the cycle will cease with education, as education provides citizens with a voice.
In her project, titled "The Subaltern Speaks: Low-Income Students' Civic Engagement and Community Transformation through Higher Education," Mann claims that education can change people's lives and end the cycle of disadvantage. The project includes collaboration with Assistant Professor of Women's Studies Vivyan Adair, as well as interviewing Hamilton College ACCESS students, low income adult parents who, with help from the college, hope to become more self-sufficient, economically stable, professionally fulfilled, and culturally engaged as citizens. Extensive social research, as well as interviews, will enable Mann to create a socially driven photojournalism exhibit.
An aspiring photographer, Mann is interested in exploring the topic through photojournalism as a social tool with the power to impact public opinion, policy and legislation. Her exhibit will be a forum for low-income student parents, and Mann will present images and texts of the transformation of numerous ACCESS students through the experiences of becoming educated citizens, parents and workers. By working with Professor Adair, Mann says that she hopes to understand the ways in which TANF and PRWORA legislation has limited educational opportunities for the disadvantaged. Additionally, through collaboration with Monita Webb, an ACCESS student hired by Hamilton College to work with Mann, Mann will compile the narratives of various students, complete her photojournalism exhibit, and present her project at four prestigious venues.
Mann is a rising junior majoring in art and public policy at Hamilton.
Created in 1997, the Emerson Foundation Grant program was designed to provide students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty members, researching an area of interest. The recipients, covering a range of topics, will explore fieldwork, laboratory and library research, and the development of teaching materials. The projects will be initiated this summer, and the students will make public presentations of their research throughout the 2003-2004 academic year.
