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Aidan Koch wrote a new blog post A Practice of Personal Recollection and Forgetting in the group American Studies: 5 years, 10 months ago
With a major theme of this class being the human relationship with memory and the role of the final essay as one of self-reflection, I wanted to use this final blog post as a means to look back and process the […]
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Aidan Koch wrote a new blog post The Memory of a Tempest in the group American Studies: 5 years, 10 months ago
When I was in my sophomore year of high school, my English class read The Tempest. Initially, I had never heard of the play, and I told my father about it one night, to which he responded with great praise for […]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post Milan’s “True” Duke in the group American Studies: 5 years, 10 months ago
The class discussion about the events which precede the events of The Tempest, brought about an idea that I had not considered the last time I read the through the play: who the “real” Duke of Milan was. […]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post The Hawaiian Memory of Rainstorms in the group American Studies: 5 years, 10 months ago
The focus of my group blog post was the 1992 Hurricane Iniki, which devastated the Hawaiian island of Kauai, slamming the island with until-then record rainfall, which in turn resulted in landslides, mudslides, and floods. The impact of the hurricane cannot be overstated, as six residents were killed, 1/3 were left homeless, and $3.1 billion worth…[Read more]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post In Memory of the Cakewalk in the group American Studies: 5 years, 11 months ago
During Dr. Defrantz’s discussion of dance, I took a concerted interest in the historical discussion of the quadrille and its parodic descendant, the cakewalk. The discussion of the two dances was one of cultural preservation through the performance of memory, and the ways in which this performance evolved over the past 150 years was a great point…[Read more]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post The Paradox of American Culture in the group American Studies: 5 years, 11 months ago
During our discussion in class on Friday the 30th, I was struck by Matt’s remark about the significance of Louisiana’s largest prison, Angola, having a common nickname that is taken from the slave plantation that formerly existed upon the current grounds of the prison. As Matt pointed out, the naming of the prison after a plantation already speaks…[Read more]
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Aidan Koch wrote a new blog post The Human Habit of Moving On in the group American Studies: 5 years, 12 months ago
Over spring break, I had the privilege of working in Guatemala on a philanthropic project. For a week, I worked in the town of Santiago Atitlan in Central Guatemala, and I was working with an organization, called […]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post A brief discourse on “effigies” in the group American Studies: 6 years ago
I had meant to make this post after last Friday’s class, but I was a fool and forgot about it before the weekend began.
The idea of a celebrity as an effigy, a totem or avatar without a deep, intricate personality, is not something revolutionary in our society, as we passively and impartially observe the lives of famous people rise like…[Read more]
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Aidan Koch edited the blog post Beer, Civilization, and Hurricanes in the group American Studies: 6 years ago
There was a portion in When the Levees Broke that really stuck out to me: one of the Katrina survivors was talking about when he was watching as people left to drink soda and beer in an attempt to hydrate themselves; water, the very thing that had brought destruction to New Orleans, was, paradoxically, just as necessary to the survival of its…[Read more]
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Aidan Koch joined the group American Studies 6 years, 1 month ago
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Aidan Koch became a registered member 6 years, 1 month ago