Thesis Statement Revision + Schedule

Rohan Kohli

Revised Thesis Statement

Within the United States, there is an increasingly growing number of South Asian migrants. As
these individuals begins to take root - and have been taken root since the early 20th century - the
generations to come have found themselves in limbo between two lives. The immediate is the
American society they have been born, brought up, and socialized into. The more difficult one to
identify and define is the one of their heritage. This generation’s severing of any direct
connection to their South Asian background prevents any sort of potential dialogue within the
context of their American identity. The goal of my thesis is to explore and understand the ways in
which South Asian American identities form and to provide a framework, system, or guide to
cultivate, maintain, and mobilize cohesively generations to come. By utilizing Jackson Heights
as a case study of South Asian community development, my thesis seeks to ask the question as to
why this cohesive front does not exist on college campuses across the country? What are the
structural components which have maintained this fragmented status quo? How can a reform of
the architecture and systems in place prove to be beneficial in fostering this unity?

Schedule (In Two-Week Increments)

Spring Break
• Read up as much as possible on remaining collection of articles
• Read Strategizing for the Future: Evolving Cultural Resource Centers in Higher Education
• Read The Misrepresented Minority - New Insights on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
and the Implications for Higher Education
• Enjoy break but also formulate thoughts for the remainder of the semester

March 18th - April 1st

• Research background of UVA + activism history. Answer following questions:
• How has activism taken place at UVA? What relationships have been fostered between
administration and the activists?
• What are some notable hinderances that have silenced or minimized protests and effective
actionable response to protests?
• Begin to ask questions about proposing a system. What are the ways in which I can bring a
decentralized approach which hosts culturally-based events? What are the ways in which this
system interacts with its surroundings, local Charlottesville community, and UVA itself?
• Deliverables - Spatial analysis of UVA. Demographic breakdowns, economic disparities.
Socioeconomic frontiers. Etc.
• Collage Intention - Using collages to understand the overlay of administrative structures and
activist histories at UVA. Use various techniques to juxtapose these relationships and hopefully
take something novel from it.

April 1st - April 15th

• Begin answering many of the questions formulated in prior questions. Equally, begin to answer
the following questions:
• What does this system intend to accomplish?
• What is the divisions that are set in place?
• How would an interaction with the system occur? Who are using the spaces laid out?
• How do you set up a new space? How does each interact with each other?
• Develop a full program of the system. Understand the scope and limitations of the system.
Where and how big are the holes in the system?
• Deliverables - Diagrams explaining the system and how it is laid out with respect to earlier
spatial analysis.
• Collage Intention - Using collages along with final deliverables to outline the inner logistics of
the framework.

April 15th - April 29th

• Hone in on one site. What does this space look like?
• Provide detailed breakdown of what this space would be. A redesign of the existing
Multicultural Student Center?
• Deliverables - Renders and a spatial model of how this one space works. Consider a novel way
of visualizing this.
• Collage Intention - What are the ways in which these collages can build an idea of the
atmosphere of one of these spaces.

April 29th - May 3rd (Final Stretch)

• Finalize everything you have done for presentation purposes.
• Keep in mind narrowing the scope and grounding your project to avoid any abstraction during
presentation.
• Answer the question of how everything fluidly connects with each other? How am I able to tell
a story from start to finish?
• Begin to formulate questions about moving thesis forward beyond semester? What are the first
steps in implementing this system
• Deliverables - Everything you’ve got. Analysis diagrams. Proposal diagrams. Case study
renders. Models. Everything.
• Collage Intention (if I am doing it???) - Using collages as a way to finalize the role the spaces
within this system would play? Use this opportunity to express where the thesis would be
going in the future - maybe even considering the ways in which the system can interact with
future additions to bringing cultural empowerment and unity.