Case Study Paper
Students must submit a short case study paper (approx. 5 to 8 pages in length) analyzing a specific popular culture/media of their choosing and how it affects global affairs and international political processes. Students will be expected to compile a bibliographical list of sources following the citation style of their choosing.
The paper should follow the standard format of an academic a paper and include: an introduction, a hypothesis, thesis, and/or research question, focused analysis, a conclusion, and a bibliography/works cited list. A title page is not required, but highly encouraged. Please note: the title page and bibliography/works cited list will not count towards the overall page count.
Possible examples of popular culture/media include:
Print Media (Books, Comic Book, etc.)
Film
Television Shows
Music and Musicians
Video Games
Sports
Social Media
Students have free reign to explore any topic that deals with popular culture and international politics. However, because the project is fairly brief, it is highly encouraged to choose narrower, more specific topics. Doing so will allow for in-depth and nuanced analysis.
Some examples of manageable topics include:
Examining how IR theory/ideology is represented in a specific piece of pop culture media.
Comparing how an international issue or event is represented in different pieces of pop culture media.
Examining a particular piece of pop culture media from the perspective of an IR theory/framework.
Examples of topics that are too broad include:
Examining how pop culture media affects international politics.
Too much to cover, many types of pop culture media and many different effects on international politics.
Examining how music can be a type of soft power.
Still too much to cover; consider narrowing down to a specific genre/artist and/or picking one of two countries as case studies to compare.
