For your final paper, I expect you to engage with, and demonstrate an adequate understanding of, one or more of the texts on race, gender, class, and intersectionality covered in this class. This also means working with the concepts associated with that text/perspective. For example, if you choose to write about an individual author like W. E. B. Du Bois, I expect that you’ll discuss at least some of his key concepts (e.g., the veil, double consciousness) as they become relevant when fleshing out your argument. If you choose, for example, to analyze the Black Lives Matter Movement through an intersectional lens, I expect you to address some of the different axes of oppression (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, and/or disability) that are central to the concept of intersectionality.
Beyond these minimal expectations, you will have the freedom to reflect on the main aspects of this course in any number of creative ways. Potentially fruitful paper ideas include:
Critique: assess the strengths and weaknesses of a certain text or framework covered in class
Compare/contrast: discuss the similarities and differences between two texts or approaches; assess their relative strengths and weaknesses
Application: use a particular text or framework covered in class to explain some current event or social problem (e.g., police violence, education inequality, sexual harassment, etc.)
After the proposal and peer review processes, you will complete a full, five- to ten-page, double-spaced paper. I will be available to work with you further as you construct your final draft. You are encouraged but not required to send me a rough draft at any point prior to the final deadline, and I will try to give you prompt feedback. Note that I may or may not have time to provide you with detailed feedback on more than one of your drafts.
References Required:
Simone De Beauvoir, “The Second Sex”
Candance West and Don H.
Zimmerman, “Doing Gender.”
Judith Lorber, “Night to his Day’: The Social Construction of Gender”
Ive attached the rubric and the reference we need to cite or paraphrase from. Please make sure its a full five pages.
I have also attached my paper proposal and the feedback my proffesor gave me was this:
This looks very promising so far! It looks like you
have multiple distinct but related ideas floating around, and I’m interested to
see how you pull those together. You might consider reorganizing your
paragraphs to be oriented around different themes (e.g., gender as a social
construct, women’s otherness, etc.) instead of having discrete paragraphs for
summarizing vs. comparing vs. contrasting. Does that make sense? If not let me
know and I can elaborate. Overall, you’re definitely on the right track, and I
look forward to seeing the final version. Feel free to reach out if you have
any questions during the writing process or if you’d like me to take a look at
a rough draft at some point! I should also add that your discussion of Israeli
soldiers and other current events/problems sounds like a good idea and one that
would make a fine topic on its own!
Drop box link refrences:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gqmyk6n0z41x64jevn9m5/West-Gender-1987.pdf?rlkey=okkt29bb0n2l663ybeckc0x3b&st=grdvho73&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3ak72o6odj8m41mvxm65p/de-Beauvoir-The-Second-Sex-Introduction.pdf?rlkey=6mpser5ijc507f56r1h46o9ft&st=udsfyfey&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2spc5lig1v1iom3g9df9s/Lorber-Night-to-his-Day.pdf?rlkey=iw5f43o0m6ufyi7w2dclg10fl&st=cwjq0r54&dl=0
