Azsaneé’s 2022 in Review

Hello hello, friends and family! Glad to see you figured out the QR code. This is my first time sending a holiday card but it seemed like fun and I wanted an excuse to make a Christmas collage, so I figured I’d give it a try. I’d also like to think my life is interesting enough to share some updates, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

PhD Stuff

We’re starting with school because, as you probably already know, working on this PhD is like 99.99% of my existence. I’m a 3rd year at Annenberg now (not sure who let that happen) so things are picking up, but my work is really starting to come into focus which is exciting. In the spring, I passed Qualifying Exams (a bunch of paperwork and a research paper you have to submit at the end of year 2) and earned a passive second master’s degree which was cool.

Right now, I’m studying for my Comprehensive Exams which are another big program milestone. I won’t bore you with too many details, but basically I had to put together a reading list of about 100 books, articles, chapters, etc. which address the theory, methods, and topic of my dissertation. I’ve spent the last 3 months or so reading and annotating all of those, drawing out important quotes, writing summaries, etc. During the last week of January, I’ll sit for 3 days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and respond to questions from my dissertation committee about each of those three areas based on what was on my reading list. I get 8 hours each day to write about 8-12 pages, so needless to say I’m looking forward to getting that whole thing over with.

At the end of this school year, I’ll be finished with coursework and mostly working on my dissertation from that point on which is… *screams internally.* I’ll still have teaching and research responsibilities, but those last 2 years will be focused primarily on writing. My dissertation will be about Black conspiracy theorizing, but I’ll save those details for a phone call if you’re interested in hearing more about that.

Anywho, on to the fun stuff :)

Travel Stuff

Aside from earning my PhD, my primary goal at Penn is figuring out ways to travel on my department’s dime. And I must say, I’ve done a decent job of that so far lol. This summer, I went to Paris for the International Communication Association (ICA) 2022 Conference which was fun. I’ve been once before so I didn’t do a ton of the touristy stuff, but I went to some really great restaurants, ran to the Louvre a couple of times, went to The Centre Pompidou, had Senegalese food for the first time in the 18th arrondissement, and did the tiniest bit of shopping. (I’m a broke grad student but going to Paris and not shopping would probably be breaking some sort of international treaty).

After Paris, I took the train to Amsterdam where I visited my friend Allegra and her partner Matt :) Allegra and I have been friends since we were interns together at EY back in 2015, but I left NYC in 2020 and she moved to Amsterdam about a year ago, so we’d been apart for a couple of years! In addition to the quality time, I was surprised by how much I loved Amsterdam. The canals were beautiful and the people were chill. It’s easier to bike than it is to drive anywhere there, so I was able to get around really easily on the bike Allegra and Matt had for guests. Did lots of sightseeing — the Rijksmuseum, botanical gardens, Dam square, the opera house, and even took a boat out for a day. And I discovered Tony’s Chocoloney which will forever have a place in my heart. Generally good vibes.

After getting back from Amsterdam, I had a few days in Philly to pack for my summer fellowship at the University of Southern California. I promise I actually worked (some), but I had plenty of time to frolic around LA during the 7 weeks I was there. I got to spend time with my Teachers College friends, Dyeneka, Carlos, and Stephanie during that time, as well as some friends from undergrad and high school who all live in LA. And I hate to be one of those people but I discovered that the tacos are truly better in LA.

I also spent 4th of July weekend with my Sistaz Squad (Jill, Janae, Maya, Brandon and Akhila) in Palm Springs which was a MUCH needed vacation. And I got a tour of Oceanside from my close friend/cohort-mate/collaborator, Cienna, on my way to Old Town San Diego for a weekend.

This winter, I’ll be ringing in the New Year in London with my friend/fellow Annenbabe, Sophie, before heading to Lisbon for the Lisbon Winter School!

Art Stuff

I found my artistic stride again this year which has been really nice. I’ve been taking contemporary modern classes at Koresh on Monday nights and am hoping to make time for a second night every week in 2023. I’ve been working on a series of collages titled “Sankofa,” which feature my ancestors as the subjects and reflect on what I bring to my scholarship by way of them. I might show it at a festival in the spring but we’ll see. I also made a few pieces for my kitchen wall that I’m a fan of. And this semester I made a film about Black birth workers in Philly in collaboration with Cienna. It’s definitely still a work in progress but I’m pretty proud of the first edit we’ve put together considering this is both of our first film project.

Secretly this whole PhD thing is just a funded art project.

Family Stuff

My family’s doing well! Aljamal’s still working at NASA and is applying to grad programs. Amar finished his bachelors in social work at UD and landed his first big boy job as a school counselor at William Penn HS. And Adé’s been adjusting to his day habilitation program and post-lockdown routine. My mom’s still in remission (wooh!) and came to visit me while I was in LA. And my dad still won’t get on a plane but he’s working on starting a Philly-wide band for middle and high schoolers, and we have a monthly breakfast club (we try a new breakfast restaurant and pretend we have important things to talk about) since I’m in Philly now.

Other stuff

I think that’s all of the big stuff but other noteworthy items from this year: I pierced my septum and no one seemed to notice (not a bad thing, I assume it just looks like it belongs); my 10 year high school reunion was this year (*gags*); my plants are thriving; and according to Spotify, I spent 4,635 minutes listening to Renaissance (perhaps my biggest accomplishment).

Anywho, I hope this was informative and/or interesting — it was definitely fun to reflect on the last year for a bit. And more importantly, I hope you have happy holidays!

Sending love, Azsaneé