The Fulbright Women's Roundtable hosted a special discussion on "Thriving in the Macondo" with Fulbright alumna Josephine Dorado in honor of International Women's Day this week.
Josephine Dorado was the 2015-16 US Fulbright- Q21/ MQ – MuseumsQuartier Wien Artist-In-Residence from The New School, and she presented her work with women in the Macondo refugee settlement in Vienna at the Roundtable on Monday. Josephine worked with the women to create virtual reality (VR) media narratives of the participants’ journeys, which involved creating immersive 360-degree photospheres stitched with audio stories. Participants included women from Chechnya, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Syria who were taking mandatory language classes at the Macondo, and Josephine Dorado’s innovative approach allowed them to weave language learning with immersive story creation in a 360-degree environment. Women participating learned how to generate their own stories, construct and use Google Cardboard headsets and create photospheres. These projects encouraged digital literacy and storytelling skills within a framework of cultural inclusion and awareness.
The Fulbright Women's Roundtable is an initiative of Fulbright alumnae in Austria and is supported by Fulbright Austria, the U.S. Embassy Vienna, and the Austrian Fulbright Alumni Association.