Welcome to the Digital Showcase!

The Professional and New Media program is proud to host the annual digital showcase. This showcase brings together some of the digital work being done by our students throughout UMass Boston. Each piece is created and designed by our participants and showcased as they wish it to be seen. We hope you spend careful time with each project and listen to what worlds are being created. Each piece, we believe, has something meaningful to tell us.

When you are done, please take a moment to vote for “audience choice” in both undergraduate and graduate categories. The winners will each receive a small prize and be recognized during the English Department’s year-end celebration.

UNDERGRADUATE PROJECTS

The Interview By Amber L Finney:

This piece is an interview I wrote for Journalism and Media Writing last semester. For this project, I chose to interview my Aunt Elaine. I have known her for most of my life and I have always been fascinated by her immigration story. She is one of the hardest working people I know, and I wanted to share her journey of being a college drop-out in Brazil to becoming a successful nurse in the United States.

Save the Bees by Elliot Gray Boodhan:

Save the Bees is a poem inspired by the following quote from Pope Francis in 2016: “I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey — without offence, please — to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal…since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm.” After the riots resulting the murder of George Floyd, I was reminded of the Pope’s words during the 2016 election. What he said then, in the wake of widespread misinformation and the human desire to latch onto scandal, resonated with me as I saw my generation take advantage of Floyd’s murder for social media clicks, rather than a desire to advocate for the disenfranchised. On one hand, the piece reflects on the environmental movement; on the other, it questions the values of those who spread clickbait in the name of advocacy. 

The Clopen Restaurant by Sean R Barney:

The world has been a difficult place to live in and navigate medically, socially, and economically over the last year. No one has been hit harder than the restaurant industry. It was a fragile and difficult industry to be successful in to begin with. After working so many years in the industry, I feel I owe it to these integral, yet marginalized workers to offer platform to articulate their concerns. Without a meeting place, societies cannot begin. Without beer and food, no one will come. If recent events have shown us anything, people need to come together more than ever, now. This webtext project is my effort to help make sure we don’t lose any more of the places that we break bread at as a community. 

May-able by Menaka Ravikumar:

May-able is a blog that focuses on book and movie reviews, as well as makeup reviews. Occasionally I post alternative topics that are still within the realm of book related topics, but they’re filled with factual evidence to back up opinion. I also have some posts on the craft of writing as I have been writing since I was 13 years old, and I am currently working towards publishing my debut novel. 

Having To Be Creative To Be Creative by Thomas A Cappelli:

Traditionally, coursework and training in the fine and performing arts relies heavily upon access to in-person facilities and equipment such as studios, theaters, workshops, labs, and, most importantly, face-to-face collaboration.  Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, arts students especially have faced unique obstacles in their education and overcome them in adaptive, creative ways.  In this photo essay, I share a glimpse into how some traditionally hands-on courses have operated in remote modality here at UMB over the past year.  

Travel Article by Huong L Lam:

This is a travel review about my vacation in Jiufen and Shifen villages, Taiwan. These two ancient villages are considered as must-see destinations to tourists by their breathtaking beauty of nature where tourists can feel themselves surrounded by the mountains and the sea. So, I include photos such as photos of souvenirs that I bought and photos of landscapes. Also, I described how I could get to the villages, shared stories of local people and foods I ate there. I hope readers could learn something interesting from my article which could give them some clues about Taiwan’s history, culture, language, and cuisine.

More Than The Music by Tyler Harris:

This piece is an article from my personal blog and was originally written for a sociology class at UMass Boston. “More than the Music” is about the power of music as a form of entertainment, social identity, and history in the making. Most people can appreciate music, but not everyone realizes that it is also one of the most authentic ways to reflect on and respond to what is happening in the world. This article reveals how music is and always will be more than just the music.

Look Gently by Kieran Smith:

This piece is done with acrylic paint on paper, standing about a foot high and eight inches wide. The shape and concept are inspired by mosaics, particularly those seen in Islamic architecture. Done for a two-dimensional design class, the piece focuses on understanding the relationship and value between its shapes, colors, and other dimensional components. The shape was created by drawing only one piece of the design and repeating it across the page to create the pattern. Then, on this sketch, half of a shape was drawn across the pattern to create a border, which was then folded in half to complete the border around the pattern.

MMK Journey by Emily Griffin (Audience Choice):

Learn about International Moon Moo Kwan Federation: history, mission, and members, in the USA and ROK. Short documentary on MMK History and interview with IMMK US Technical Director, Master Jin Oh

GRADUATE PROJECTS

ENG 101: Writing Together by Benny Berger (Audience Choice):

This project presents a theoretical and pedagogical framework called “Writing Together” which advocates for approaches to teaching first-year composition that account for ways in which writing is a co-constructive, social, and ethical process. This framework identifies community and collaboration as key concepts and resources for understanding and experiencing writing as a social and ethical activity. I use this framework to design a first-year composition course called “ENGL 101: Writing Together,” which enacts principles and goals through a scaffolded set of projects that encourages students to learn about and practice writing as situated and contextual and as co-constructive, ethical, and social.

Digital Showcase Voting Booth

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