Lets discuss methodology. We all have a certain way of doing things. As for me, when it comes to doing research projects and presentations, I tend to work backwards.  By that I mean,  typically I  visualize the final result of the project first, then build on the ideas in my head. With the digital silk road project, I’ve already completed the project in my head, but the fundamentals are not coming together.  For my group, pinpointing a location to research is much harder than we expected. Determining which era to closely examine is even harder. I did not foresee these challenges.  Our group has considered researching groups of people near the Arabian Sea.  Presently this land is designated to Iran, Saudi Arabia and parts of Afghanistan .  The scope of the Silk Road is so broad that one can find his or herself overwhelmed by the various societies, cultures, religions and so forth.  Gathering information is vital for Team Sky at this point. My method for gathering information consists of scouring through academic sources (print books, eBooks, journal articles etc.)  related to beauty and body images for Muslim women.  I started with Guilford’s library database. I searched for topics related to beauty and body images for Muslim women in addition to the perception of beauty in Islam. I searched for a variety subjects like: “Islamic feminism”, ” beauty in Arabia”, and the “history of women’s bodies” just to get a feel for what kind of information was out there. Now, even though there were plenty of sources for my topic, again I found the task I narrowing the subject down to a specific group of Muslim women very challenging. I read a few summaries that were interesting and I kept record of the ones relevant to my topic. Right now, I am in the beginning stages of  exploring  Persian art and literature. My intention is to make connections between the idea of beauty in Islam, specifically in locations near the Arabian Sea, and the influence the Silk Road had on those perceptions of beauty. The  articles I have read  are very engaging. In addition to the books and articles,  art that is associated with the women and Islam is very interesting. Now, the task will be tying all these wonderful things together with the Silk Road.
Methodology is super important with this project.  The organization of this entire process will either make us or break us. Managing our time,  compiling our evidence, presenting our findings and arranging our story map must be on our top priority list. Even though deciding on a location and time period  supersedes all these things, Team Sky needs to come to solid consensus on these issues very soon. Am I worried? Not at all. We each have our own way of doing things. I am confident that my team members are busy digging for sources and information.  I’m quite sure they find the task of focusing on a particular  society on or near the Silk Road just a difficult as I do, but as a team we will prevail. So far, the information that Ive encounter is  relevant but solidifying one particular society is hard.
While finding a particular society to focus on is a task, on the other hand our class readings have been very helpful. The readings are long, but at the same time they contain vital names and dates of societies that thrived on the Silk Road. The reading, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea revealed the  names of some historical Persian societies that thrived on maritime Silk Road. It described the flourishing trade of  frankincense  through the Arabian peninsula and further into India. Even though the article did not talk about beauty and body images directly, I was able to get a sense of the culture on the Arabian peninsula and the maritime routes impact on the culture.  
So, as I close, I look forward to putting more pieces of together and making more connections between beauty and body images as it pertains to the Silk Road. In the near future I anticipate more correspondence with my Team about their methods and their individual findings. I embrace my Teams unique ability to get things done so, I hope the task of choosing a society and a time period is not to overwhelming.  If we find that it is too overwhelming, I hope that we can discuss our issues and try to resolve them together. I have a great feeling about our process and an even more better feeling about the outcome of our Silk Road project.