This week we voted on which projects we would make this semester. I’m interested in archiving and digital exhibits, so I was initially drawn to Tasha’s proposal “Bandurapedia” and thrilled when a group started to coalesce around the project. I am taking on a researcher/outreach co-role with Lini. I’m looking forward to learning some development and UX skills from shadowing Alex and Tasha.

In our first zoom meeting at the end of last week we tossed around new names for the project, discussed how to revise the proposal, and the collaborators agreement. I volunteered to start looking for a professor or doctoral student who could advise us. There is a professor in the CUNY Grad Center’s Ethnomusicology department who I thought could be a good fit, but her area of expertise is South Eastern Europe, which does not include Ukraine. Lini reached out to a friend who recommended we connect with a Bard professor – Dr. Sonevytsky, who specializes in post-Soviet Ukraine and music. This is a great recommendation and based on her bio I think it’d be a really exciting opportunity for us if we get to talk to her. I am anxious to reach out to her – I am sure she’s very busy with her own projects, course load, etc. and since she is outside of our institution I feel like even more of an imposition. I have drafted an email to her that I want to go over with my teammates. I thought that my outreach skills were fairly strong, but I am finding this email intimidating and feeling frustrated by my lack of confidence. Too vulnerable?

Right now we’re keeping a shared google drive and communicating via signal. From this weeks reading/resources I hope we can add a project management tool like Trello or Asana to our arsenal. I feel a sense of anxious anticipation as we begin this project. Ultimately, I’m really excited to be working with Alex, Lini, and Tasha and I can’t wait to grow and learn alongside them this semester.