Weekly Blog Post 1: 5/24 to 6/1

As this is my very first blog post and I've only been at the REU for around 3 full days, this blogpost might be a tad more theoretical rather than me listing out in detail how I'm struggling with my sources or that I completed a map in GIS, but I still hope that will still be of use to both me and to whomever is reading this.

For the 3 things that I feel like I accomplished this week are that I made friends with the other people in the REU, I was able to decide my topic for the most part, and that I've been able to adapt and become more adaptable to this new environment. I personally feel as if my first accomplishment is the most important one this week because even though the work is mostly individual, I find it important to use the other people in the REU to bounce ideas off them and so they can help me with my research and so that I can do the same with them. It's also just nice to have friends in a new place as well. Secondly, I'm very glad that I was able to choose a research question quite easily because picking a topic is typically one of the harder stages of research process for me. I picked my topic because of a book that I read in a Civil War seminar class I took sophomore year which described the role of the military in Reconstruction, which inspired me to do the same with these set of letters. The last struggle is more of a personal problem because for some reason whenever I'm in a new place that I'm unfamiliar it stresses me out and it takes a while for me to adjust to the new environment. However, I've been able to adapt to USM quite well, and a quite enjoy taking walks and exploring the campus as Hattiesburg.

For the 3 things that I feel that I struggled with are using WIX, narrowing down my research question, and navigating campus. First off, I struggle to use WIX not because I'm not familiar with web design because I have created websites for other college classes and for personal use, but because I have never used WIX before and so I have to learn a new platform which I'm completely unfamiliar with. Secondly, while I know what my research question is I'm afraid that it might be too broad for the time period and the sources that we have been given, and I'm struggling to come up with how I could possibly narrow it down further. And lastly, I have horrible spatial awareness so navigating campus has been an interesting experience for me because the only two places I can confidently navigate to are the library and the dorm building that I'm staying at.

For the 3 things that I learned this week I learned about the subtle use or racism in writing and conversation, I learned more about Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more about what the Mapping Freedom project entails. Firstly, while race and racism are highly known and discussed widely throughout the US, I didn't know that people could use subtle changes in how they speak or write to convey racist messages. For example, though the sentence "African Americans are discriminated against because of their skin color" is subtly racist because it states that its African American's fault that they are being discriminated against instead of the person who is actively discriminating against them. Secondly, while I have taken classes on American history and the Civil War, I have never really taken a deep dive into what went on in the state of Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction besides the really big events such as the Vicksburg campaign or the Meridian riad. Lastly, this week I have learned so much about the Mapping Freedom Project from its purpose and goals, the sources that it provides its participants to use, and all of the facilities of the University of Southern Mississippi at our disposal that will help us to conduct our research.

As for what the next steps for my research project will be, first I need to really narrow down my research question because right now it is far to broad to make a concise research paper out of, and then I need to start looking through the letters and other secondary sources on my topic to start the actual research on my topic.