Introductions - Nawal Salim, W14

Hi! My name is Nawal Salim and I am a second year English and Professional Writing student. I hope to enter the institutional communications stream in my third year. This year, I started a club called Greenlight Productions (www.facebook.com/YUGreenlight) which showcases dramatic art while in accordance to Islamic ethical principles. With that being said, it is obvious that I am very passionate about the arts; particularly dramatic arts, and my faith - Islam. 

This semester, I hope to learn about new databases or other search engines that will help me do greater research on future assignments in all my courses. The English side of my major requires me to use secondary sources frequently so I often use literature databases such as Literature Online, Literature Resource Centre, and Oxford Reference Online. When I am unable to find any information on those databases, I use Google Scholar. For courses I took in high school, as well as research on common topics, I use good ol' Google. I have never heard of Zotero or Refworks until I enrolled in this course. I hope I will learn how to use these sites as they look very convenient.  

Unfortunately, I do not have any experience with podcasts or radio broadcasting. I am very excited to create a podcast because it seems like an opportunity to perform. I am very nervous however, that I wont be able to find enough information to talk about for 15 minutes. Or rather, it wont be entertaining or engaging. 

One of the topics that I found interesting were, On The Media. I am very in tune with what is happening in pop culture and it would be fun to express my opinions on a recent Hollywood scandal. As well, I found Under The Influence an exciting topic too. I am a huge "hip hop head" so I would find it cool to learn about different advertising techniques some of my favourite musicians used to get their name or album out to the world. 

Although there are some really great topics, I really want to speak on a topic not listed. I want to research and talk about the influence religion had and still has on dramatic arts. I want to look at the history of drama and film and the future of religion in drama or film - with the approval of my TA, of course. 

I cant wait to see where this semester takes me. I hope it's fun!