Week 14 Discussion Question

In light of Catherine M. Orr's "Challenging the 'Academic/Real World' Divide" and Rebecca Anne Allahyari's "Becoming Feminist Cyber Ethnographers," I wanted to reflect on the idea of creating activist narratives through new technologies.

Orr discusses how her students struggled to see themselves as a part of the history of women's activist movements, and how they were equally troubled by the idea that no singular narrative of the women's movement might exist. Considering Allahyari's discussion of cyber ethnographies, how might the organization histories found on most organization's websites serve to either distance students from narratives of activism, or make them feel closer to it? In other words, can technology provide different experiences and interactions with history than books can? Also, given the multiplicity of perspectives/information available on the Internet, is there a danger of reinforcing the lack of cohesiveness and commonality between women's different forms of activism?