To and Through Upbringing: Getting Beyond Ourselves Communicatively in a Student Organization, Girls’ Talk

In this hybrid undergraduate honors thesis and creative project, I investigate the role of our inherent interconnection with others as humans, our inheritance of history and tradition through our way of having to be brought up as humans, and how we might all expand our world view and even reimagine possibilities for our own lives through conversation and community. My research is founded by work in W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, and Jens Zimmerman’s Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction. Additionally, this project includes reflection on my inspiration and founding of the student organization, Girls’ Talk, in 2019. Presented also are qualitative research findings derived from a facilitated dialogue session and relevant survey responses by session participants recruited from the student organization. In all, as was my hope in creating Girls’ Talk, I hope that this project offers readers a glimpse into the meaningful conversations and potentially transformative connections that can be nurtured in spaces where individuals are encouraged and inspired to share their experiences, learn from others, and consider ways of being that differ from their own.