Even though NYU Buenos Aires had to suspend their in-person activities due to the impact of COVID-19 in Argentina, the site’s Global Equity Fellow, Sydney Lin, is continuing to focus on building community with her fellow NYU Buenos Aires students scattered around the globe. Although this was not what she had envisioned for her GEF experience, Sydney’s personal goal has now become “keeping our community connected and supported” despite not being together and she decided that “continuing events was a way to do that.”

 

Sydney, a second-year Steinhardt student pursuing a double major in Early Childhood Education and Spanish, with a minor in Dance, is in the final stages of organizing an April 13 event that is featuring an Afro-Descendent activist and cultural studies expert. Sydney will present and lead Q & A with Anny Ocoró Loango on the topic of Afro-Descendants in Argentina: Myths, Realities, and Challenges in the Field of Education.

 

Sydney is also busy coordinating with the NYU Buenos Aires Student Life team to showcase a visually vibrant project of large portraits of Argentine historical figures who in truth were Afro-Descendents, despite the fact that some historiographies showed them as caucasian or Euro-Descendant. Plans for an in-person exhibition of eight portraits at the Academic Center have been postponed to a future semester, though Sydney and the NYU Buenos Aires staff are moving the exhibition online for now. The online exhibition will open on April 30.

 

The images the team has selected showcase the visual impact of restoring the actual visual identity to national historical figures who were misrepresented as more European but now restored to their authentic image by the sponsoring Institute’s historical research. The digital images that will be shared for this event are photos of the portraits themselves. These images reveal that these Afro-Argentine historical figures were “invisibilized” and are now being re-vizibilized, and correctly fully celebrated as part of the larger movement to combat discrimination against persons of color in Argentina.

Originally from Durham, North Carolina, Sydney says she enjoyed expanding her horizons at NYU’s New York campus, and was very excited to study in Buenos Aires for Spring 2020 to further her Spanish fluency and to investigate questions surrounding inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity.  Sydney, along with everyone at NYU Buenos Aires, had to depart because of COVID-19. “A month and a half in, we had just gotten into the swing of things with classes and with living in a new country. As GEF, I had various events planned or in the works that I had to quickly leave, not knowing if we’d be able to do them virtually or not.” Sydney feels that moving forward with the events has become a meaningful way for students to stay connected. Even though she knows it is likely that fewer students will attend virtual events, Sydney believes that “it is important to continue providing safe spaces and opportunities for students to talk about IDBE (inclusivity, diversity, belonging, and equity) issues/concerns. Additionally, learning about these issues in the context of Buenos Aires helps us learn more about the beautiful city we had to leave so abruptly.”