For my Capstone, I created “Who Is The Image,” a multimedia website examining the representation of women of color in media and social media culture. Driven by my own experiences with harmful stereotypes and exclusion, my project went far beyond a traditional research paper, combining interview narratives, collage art, a podcast episode, anonymous social media submissions, a media literacy guide, and a community resource guide into a single interactive platform. My process involved extensive research into the historical roots of misrepresentation, designing interview protocols, hosting an identity collaging workshop, and collaborating with peers, totaling over 80 hours of work. The project aligns with my future studies in Media and Technology Cultures and reflects SLA’s core values of inquiry, collaboration, presentation and reflection. What I am most proud of is the non-traditional, human-centered approach I brought to my research, building a space for dialogue that treated participants as full people rather than data points. I hope my project models the kind of critical media literacy and community storytelling needed to challenge and rewrite the narratives that marginalize women of color.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mPH-A0Y20URyF3SqkkPxWfq4woTYc4WlLV1xKlTJS6k/edit?usp=sharing

Capstone Site: https://judicious-broker-539.notion.site/Who-Is-the-Image-34f1c401f9b08099ab08f46c659df8b7?source=copy_link