Hi everybody,

I’m Anna, or AvR, and I’m the teaching assistant for Design, Place & Social Innovation Studio this spring. I’m a second year master’s student in the Communication Planning & Information Design program in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design. My background is in bio-materials engineering, and as a designer I’m driven by a desire to improve the human condition by re-defining healthcare experiences, information surrounding pharmaceuticals and medical tech, and increasing awareness about materials’ impact on ecosystems.

Somewhere in there I dabble in visual design; but at my core I am a creative writer.

I’m excited to be TAing for this course, and to aid in the exploration of behavior around guns — such a timely & seemingly endemic issue in American society & public wellbeing. As a writer, I’m particularly interested in the place of the gun as a symbol or prop in media and storytelling over time and place; how does that factor into our identity? Can we continue to use weapons as symbols without leading to more real-world violence? Why are we as human beings attracted to storys with such symbols to begin with?

Feel free to ask me any questions about the course, or tell me if you are having trouble with any parts of the blog or wordpress in general!

Cheers,

AvR