Embedded Files
As I first constructed my Digital Archive webpage, I selected one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite novels to serve as the opening line to my Humanities Core experience:
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"Words are not just vibrations in the air. They work more powerfully than that, and on more powerful objects."
-Natsume Soseki ("Kokoro")
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Chosen on a whim, basically.
At the time, this choice was essentially surface level.
This webpage would contain my personal words, words about the words read in Humanities Core.
I liked the quote, felt it to be fitting, and positioned it central to my homepage.
What I perhaps didn’t realize was that these words unknowingly seemed to capture the essence of my very experience in the course.
Words are not just vibrations in the air,
propagations of mechanical waves disturbing the particles of the air.
They work more powerfully than that:
they construct stories, become devices of healing, proponents of social and political change.
They work on more powerful objects:
relationships, communities, institutions, minds, and hearts.
Words brought catharsis to the brigata as they escaped plague, constructed international communist movements envisioning a new way the world could be, bridged the scientific and humanitarian realms, and more.
first page of my research paper:
My research process, examining Pebbles of Poetry by Wago Ryoichi, exemplified this “power of words,” both across different media and across languages.
I had to think critically and consciously about how to piece together my words to properly construct my message.
I had to analyze words in one language and write about them in another, ensuring no meaning was lost in translation along the way.
It was a test of my bilingual brain, built up by nineteen years of intercultural living, and an exercise in my college-level writing ability, built up by the four earlier essays and the nine earlier archival entries in the Humanities Core sequence.
a look into my research process:
a photo essay
What I find interesting, looking back, is how my research paper turned out to be authentically true to who I am.
If you look at my homepage, you will see a bulleted list of information about myself.
Reading it back in retrospect, I was surprised to find that the bulleted list I wrote as the very first piece of my Digital Archive foreshadowed the paper I would come to write almost nine months later.
scroll to see!
This leads into my advice to you,
future Humanities Core student:
Choose a topic that is so uniquely you. Unmistakably yours.
Choose one that embodies who you are, what you stand for, what you value most.
When you’re deciding your topic, envision this: You accidentally misplace a copy of your paper, accidentally leave it behind in your seminar classroom. Your name is not on it. Someone picks it up and starts reading.
Would they know, without a doubt, that this paper could only have been written by you?
If the answer is yes, you’ve chosen the right topic for you.
Now, don’t get that mistaken for needing to choose the “right topic.” There is no “right topic,” truly.
As I was brainstorming ideas, I too fell victim into thinking: what would make the greatest statement about the state of humanity? What would change the scholarly discourse as we know it today? What can I write about that others would marvel at? But it’s truly not about that.
There is no “right topic.”
There is only the right topic for you.
And I say, you just need to choose the right topic for you. You will be spending a lot of time on it, after all.
But also, don’t be afraid for your ideas to change and evolve over time. I originally intended to analyze the poetic content, to describe how Wago’s poetry painted the human experience of surviving and rebuilding after a disaster.
As I poured through the scholarly discourse, however, I realized many scholars had already done so.
Around this time was when I attended the Humanities Core Research Symposium, where the advice continually given was: do not reiterate what scholarly secondary sources are already saying, but rather focus on entering the scholarly discussion and having a unique take and provide valuable, new insight.
humanities core research symposium
April 25, 2025
My project then turned into an analysis of its digital origin and medium on Twitter, analyzing the affordances and limitations born out of the digital platform. It was not what I had expected to come out of my project, but it was an underexplored element of the scholarly discourse and lent itself to an interesting final product.
Science Library 4th Floor:
Where my research paper was born.
With that being said, execution matters. As I spent the hours locked away at the quiet floor of the Science Library, I realized the importance of words. Even if the ideas are unique, the insight is spectacular, the thoughts in your head must be translated into words on a page. This process, for me, was the most difficult part. If I were to do it all again, I would start the writing process earlier. The time spent researching was valuable to come up with my thoughts and insights, but the thoughts are nothing without the words to communicate it. Spend time on those words.
this quarter,
of humanities core
This quarter’s lectures were some of my favorites in the whole series, perfectly encapsulating the worldbuilding theme.
Prof. Fan
on Asian-American Science Fiction
Through Professor Fan’s unit, I was moved to learn about the convergence of both the scientific and literary worlds, two worlds that I feel equally a part of, and the Asian-American communities and histories that shape how they choose to navigate their world.
Prof. Ruberg
on Worldbuilding in Video Games
Through Professor Ruberg’s unit, I found myself introduced to the video game world, a space I typically do not engage with. I was stunned to find that video games were much like novels and films than I previously imagined, building worlds that thoughtfully commented on real-world politics and society.
Prof. Broadbent
on Analyzing the Built World
In Professor Broadbent’s unit, I learned to closely look at the environment that surrounds me everyday, recognizing that each piece of architecture, each street name, each urban design, was strategically implemented to create a world of the maker’s vision.
Looking back through my Digital Archive, I feel a sense of growth and accomplishment.
It was an honor to be able to share my thoughts through an unusual medium, to get to share anecdotes about myself and how they related to the content learned in lecture.
I feel that I have grown as a writer, developed skills as a researcher, and expanded my capacity as a thinker.
I started my Digital Archive with
“Welcome, Worldbuilder.”
You might think that I would conclude with the opposite; bid you “Farewell, Worldbuilder…”
But no.
Welcome again, Worldbuilder…
This is just the beginning.
header image: Parker Lab UCI
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