I hope for all of you, 2015 was a year of accomplishments, memorable moments, inspiration and a few adventures. Often this time of year promotes reflection on ones activities of the past year, and how to build on them for the next year and beyond.
Delight and Peace, Shadow Selfie-Portrait. Photograph by Alison Rose Jefferson. (8 July 2015) (click to enlarge)
I wish you joy, inspiration, fulfillment, tranquility and good health in 2016.
Click on the headings below to view my more full musing of the highlights from the past twelve months in words and photographs.
Accomplishments and New Life Opportunities
For me it was a busy year of finishing up a phase of investment in knowledge attainment to explore new life directions and enhanced career opportunities. To those of you who do not know, yes, in December 2015 I totally finished the process, including my dissertation to earn my doctorate in History from University of California, Santa Barbara…
While winding down the formal education process this past year, I was happily able to continue supporting efforts to inspire, engage and empower new and broader audiences to learn about the history of SoCal’s African American experiences….with the Santa Monica Conservancy, the African American surfing groups…The Forgotten Surfer Project…more>
Travel, Adventure, Learning, Exploration and Renewed Inspiration
Also, this past summer I managed to squeeze in a little travel and adventure that was inspirational and will be educationally useful for the future. I made a presentation at the 2015 Collegium for African American Research (CAAR) Conference in Liverpool (United Kingdom) and toured the city. From there I rode the train to London and then on to Paris (France). Next I made a stop in Venice (Italy).
While in these cities I specifically set out to engage with the African diaspora community history in each place, and to some extent with their contemporary cultural influences. I learned about the hundreds of years of this history in these European places and the multi-cultural societies that many people chose to overlook or have little awareness of…more>
