Field Work Term Spotlight: Yami Antonio ’25
Yami Antonio ’25 studies Psychology and Anthropology at Bennington. She spent her summer Field Work Term in Kuala Lumpur and Penang as a student ethnographic researcher for the Consortium of Forced Migration, Displacement and Education.
At Bennington, students spend six weeks every year taking their skills and knowledge out of the classroom and applying them in the world of work. They use this annual work-learning opportunity—known as Field Work Term—to deepen their studies, challenge and test new ideas, and hone their direction for the future.
What was your day-to-day experience in the job?
We would typically start the day by receiving a message from our professor with an address. Like a scavenger hunt, we had to hunt him down throughout Kuala Lumpur. We would share a meal while our professor would explain the migration history, general cultural heritage, and transitions of the area. We would take notes, and then be sent out for the day to explore the neighborhood we were in. For the rest of the day, the student research group would split into pairs and take ethnographic field notes on interviews we've had throughout the day, including the architecture, art, culture, linguistic, and general interactions we'd observed.
Some of my fellow researchers were artists, so in addition to field notes, we took photos and drew what we were observing.
What was the most enjoyable part of your experience?
After meeting the people I have, there is no doubt in my mind that I have made life long friends throughout my research and interviews. Happiness gardens, with toys and kids' backpacks in trees, with a family baking in the yard, the smell of fresh bread. An abundance of plants in a balcony, facing an alley way. Observing placemaking has always been a habit of mine, but seeing how no matter the situation, humans will do the best to create life and space for community made me feel very human. The blending of a natural environment in a giant city.
What was the most challenging?
I had to pivot my primary area of focus, which is centered around the construct of deservingness in marginalized groups, due to my position as a foreigner, which I had no problem doing. Through shifting my focus, I began to examine culture through historical context, place making, art, and ways of being perceived, which ended up being much more connected to my original focus than I thought it would be!
How do you expect that the work you did or the skills you learned will impact your Plan?
The things that I was able to learn and observe further pushed me to continue my studies in psychology, anthropology, and language learning in a decolonial manner, with a greater understanding of how deeply policy creation imposes itself onto the people that it impacts.