Sociology and VES, '15 working with Professor Bruce Western

In spring 2013, I approached Professor Bruce Western about an idea I had for a documentary I was making for a VES film class.  I wanted to make a short piece about prisoner work-release programs in Boston but was having a hard time finding subjects.  I was familiar with Western’s research on crime and incarceration, so I told him about my film project idea and asked him if he had any suggestions for how I could realize it.  While that project was logistically impossible in the time frame I had, Western and I began a discussion that led to my work as a Video Projects Assistant for his “Boston Reentry Study."

The “Boston Reentry Study” is a collaboration between university researchers, the Massachusetts Department of Correction, and 135 men and women leaving state prison and returning to Boston. Based on qualitative, in-depth interviews, Western’s study aims to understand the daily challenges of life after incarceration.  As a Video Projects Assistant, my role was to film the interviews and edit the footage for Western to use in presentations on the study.     

Through our cross-discipline collaboration, Professor Western and I began to discuss ways in which visual arts and sociology can empower each other.  Hearing someone’s voice, or seeing the expressions on their face, has the potential to humanize social phenomena in a way that data analysis alone cannot, yet broader social inquiry provides the context in which each portrait occurs.  Working as a Video Projects Assistant for Western’s “Reentry Study” helped me to see that my interests in visual arts and sociology were in fact compatible and lead to my decision to undertake a joint concentration in Sociology and Visual and Environmental Studies.