May Issue 2001
New Student Exhibition at Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, NC
Six Triangle-area university students and former students will present their work - drawn from the various projects that earned them John Hope Franklin Awards in 2000 - in Fieldwork Summer, an exhibit that runs in the Lounge Gallery at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in Durham, NC, through Aug. 4.
Given annually by the Center for Documentary Studies, these awards of up to $2,000 help university students conduct summer-long documentary fieldwork projects. Students attending Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State are eligible to apply. The documentary work may be conducted in various media.
The awards were named in honor of John Hope Franklin, a dedicated teacher and James B. Duke professor emeritus in Duke's history department, whose lifelong commitment to his students has been a hallmark of his career. Five of the students describe their contributions to the exhibition below. The sixth contributor is Kristen Posehn.
The Children of East Timor: A View on War and Reconstruction
"These photographs explore the lives of Timorese children in the aftermath of widespread violence in their country in 1999-2000. The display includes original black-and-white photographs taken during my months with the people of East Timor, both in Dili (the capital city) and in the countryside. It also includes photographs taken by a group of street children with whom I worked: Manuel Luis, Manuel Gusmao, Chiquito, Alberto, Teodoro, Juanico, and Julio. The display aims to capture the varying effects of war and reconstruction on children: how these events change lives and circumstances, how children adapt, and how certain facets of life do not change." - Pooja Kumar, Duke University
Medicare: Faces in the System
"The United States prides itself on economic
dominance and scientific achievements, yet it is among the few
industrialized nations without provisions for complete medical
services for its citizens. In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson's administration
created two national health insurance plans: Medicaid and Medicare.
The initial goals were to eliminate economic barriers between
patients and access to medical care and to create a system of
equal treatment for all individuals."
"In my video documentary Medicare: Faces in the System
I explore Medicare from the perspectives of a US Congressman,
the director of a rural health clinic, a doctor of pharmacology
at that clinic, and four patients who rely extensively on Medicare.
Through interviews I found that Medicare is neither a complete
success nor a total failure; while the government insurance is
a savior to many elderly people, others suffer from its red tape
and lack of coverage". - Siddharth Sura, University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill
East Main, West Main
"This mixed-media project attempts to document the life and imagery of a few diverse blocks of Main Street in downtown Durham, NC. Divided into East Main and West Main, these two sections of a street differ in more than direction. Socioeconomically, racially, and most importantly in the kind and amount of attention given to each, East differs from West such that they could be parts of completely different cities. This project sought to examine the many differences and possible reasons for the disparity. As the project evolved on East Main, it became a labor of recording those things that transcend the labeled boundaries assigned to a place and of celebrating the rough beauty of those features." - Jason Wagner, Duke University
Electric Light. The Story of a Community in Transition
"People living in a rural community of the Dominican Republic told me, through interviews, about their dreams, their struggles, and their successes. In this project, I sought to present their thoughts about what it means to be a Dominican "campesino". When we think of rural communities in developing countries, we tend to focus on the negatives and forget about the courage and strength that can be found in these places. I hope that by focusing on the beauty of this community my project can shatter these stereotypes and show the dignity of these people's rural lifestyle. On a personal note, it was my work in this community that helped me rediscover an appreciation for my own rural upbringing in eastern North Carolina." - Dennis Davis, Duke University
Raising Survivors
"Cock fighting is reportedly the world's oldest spectator sport, going back 6,000 years to Persia, or modern-day Iran. During a fight, specially trained gamecocks are placed in a pit or on a stage to fight each other, usually to the death. The breeding, raising, and training of these animals and the intricacies of betting on fights are integral to understanding why cock fighting has been popular for so long. It was a national sport in England until it was outlawed in 1850, and some famous Americans - including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson - have also raised and fought birds. Today the fights are illegal in most of the United States. Cock fighting is popular in Latin America, and so this tradition is now part of some immigrant communities in the US. My photographic study examines a man, his three sons, and their fighting cocks, an aspect of folklife among the Hispanic migrant farmworker population in North Carolina." - Stacey Van Vleet, Duke University
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