Sheeba Mathew- Winner 1st place in the Critical/Analytical Exhibit Category of the campus-wide Identity and Resistance Symposium

Identity and Resistance in Global Contexts will link faculty from five colleges to collaborate on producing a student-generated digital collection containing a variety of texts, videos, digital stories, podcasts, and music on Identity and Resistance in Global Contexts. The multi-college project includes faculty from Arts & Sciences, Architecture, Media & Communications, Visual & Performing Arts and Texas Tech Libraries with Alec Cattell, Sarai Brinker, Idoia Elola, Andrea Jonsson, Belinda Kleinhans, Kent Wilkinson and Julie Zook as PIs.

Description of Digital Archive: Students around campus are working on projects to build a digital archive on Identity and Resistance in Global Contexts. The collection will contain a variety of digital objects, including texts, video and audio clips, digital stories, and podcasts that address the global challenge themes of population and conflict from multiple perspectives.

The objects deal with conflicts that arise in human populations in the context of urbanization and migration, as well as political and racial/ethnic/national tensions. They examine both individual and collective expressions of identity and acts of resistance in the present and recent past.

This archive is intended as a resource for students, scholars, policymakers, businesspeople, and citizens who are working to understand and address these challenges today.

Sheeba's Project

• Title: The Collective Voice Found in Music
• Abstract: The topic of 'Population and Conflict' with a concentration on the concepts of 'Identity and Resistance' brings to light many conflicts within a global context. Some of the numerous struggles that have been at the forefront of society for thousands of years are the inequalities of minor communities, especially with the African- American and LGBTQIA communities. One major outlet used as a form of resistance and an establishment of these respective communities' voices have been found in the creation of music to serve as an anthem for the masses. Specifically, the creation of rap by the African- American community to exemplify racial hardships and the singers that have paved the way to normalize and open up sexual and gender norms, have both helped to promote progress and awareness on a global scale. For the digital archive, I have created an interactive, curated web portfolio which includes various mediums, including musical and artistic examples and analyses, which highlight the different components of this research.