PLEASE READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION GIVEN CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING THE WOK!
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR THE FINAL PROJECT REPORT:
Throughout the semester, you have engaged with various articles and news pieces that explore
how society impacts different groups based on factors such as class, gender, sex, race, and family
composition. Additionally, you have explored sociological discussions on how these issues can
be addressed. In light of this, I encourage you to reflect on these topics through a sociological
lens, considering the perspectives you have encountered during the semester.
For your final project, instead of a traditional exam, you will be applying the social research
method of interviewing (discussed in Chapter 2 of the course material). Please refer to the
interview guidelines provided on D2L under the Assignment Guidelines folder. The objective is
to gain insights into how individuals with different social statuses (race, class, sexuality, family
composition, or gender) experience socialization differently from your own experiences.
General Steps
1. Select an interviewee. Choose someone who differs from you in terms of two of the
following social statuses: race, class, sexuality, family composition, or gender. For
instance, if you are an African American who grew up in a relatively affluent
neighborhood, you might consider interviewing a white individual who grew up in a
disadvantaged neighborhood. Similarly, if you identify as a binary male, you may wish to
interview a non-binary individual. You can opt for the most convenient medium for
conducting the interview, such as a video call, phone call, or in-person meeting.
2. Drawing from the discussion board question #1, encourage your interviewee to share
information about their personal identity, including the characteristics that influence their
social status, such as gender, race, sexual identity, and social class. Additionally, prompt
them to reflect on the significance of time, space, and social location in their lives.
Explore how these factors (where they are, when they are, and who they are)
sociologically shape their experiences.
3. Discuss the assignment#2 (cultural artifact), discussion post 5 (song on race and
ethnicity), and assignment#6 (photos on doing gender) to your interviewee. Allow them
to select a cultural artifact, a song related to race and ethnicity, and take photos depicting
how they are “doing gender”.
4. Place these items in a conceptual socialization box. It is not necessary to physically
include the actual items, but rather include a written description of the selected song or a
printed-out picture of the cultural artifact, along with the interviewee’s photos capturing
their experiences of gender. Feel free to unleash your creativity without any hesitation.
There are no limits to the techniques you can employ when presenting the box and its
contents. The sky’s the limit!
6. Regarding the interview report component:
a. Interview Report Formatting:
i. Use double-spacing with 1-inch margins.
ii. Choose Times New Roman font with a size of 12 points.
iii. Respect the 1200-word limit (excluding references, title, header, and list of
questions at the end).
iv. Follow the citation style guide provided in the “Assignment Guidelines” folder
on D2L. While I have not been overly strict with citation styles in previous
assignments, for the final paper, I will pay closer attention to it.
v. Save and submit your paper in a format that can be opened and edited in
Microsoft Word, such as “.doc” or “.docx”.
b. Required Sections in Your Paper (Not Limited to):
i. Begin with an introductory paragraph that describes the interviewee, their
differences from you in terms of two statuses (e.g., gender, sex, class, race), the
location and duration of the interview, the data collection method (phone, in
person), and any other relevant contextual information.
ii. Body paragraphs:
Cultural artifact: Refer to discussion board post #2 and ensure you direct the first
two questions to your interviewee and report their answers. Include a visual
representation of the cultural artifact, such as an actual photo or an image sourced
from the web. Analyze the artifact through sociological theories.
Songs on race and ethnicity: Refer to discussion board post #5 and ensure the
selected song by your interviewee aligns with the listed criteria. Include the
YouTube link of the song. Analyze the song through sociological theories.
Photos on “doing gender”: Refer to discussion board post #6 and ensure the
selected photos by your interviewee align with the listed criteria. Include the
photos taken by your interviewee. Analyze the photos through sociological
theories.
iii. Discussion paragraph: Compare your own selection of each item and your
responses with those of your interviewee. Reflect on how social statuses (race,
class, sexuality, family composition, or gender) may have influenced your choices
and reflections. Provide explanations for the impact or lack thereof.
iv. Include a conclusion paragraph (or two) that summarizes and reflects upon the
implications of the assignment and the knowledge gained from it.
v. Incorporate a minimum of 4 course materials throughout your paper. Please
highlight these concepts in the text. Note that regardless of the number of
references to the coursebook, it will count as 1 course material. The remaining 3
references should come from the articles, videos, and materials assigned to you
throughout the semester.
vi. If you asked additional questions (beyond the discussion board questions) to
your interviewee, attach a list of those questions (without the responses) to the
end of the paper. Ensure your questions follow the Golden Rules of social
research (refer to Chapter 2). If you have any concerns about your questions,
please consult with me before conducting the interviews.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are not allowed to share any of those responses outside of this
class since you need MSU’s Institutional Review Board’s approval to conduct research with
human subjects if it is beyond the coursework.
**Scroll down to the next page to view some suggestions for good writing**
You are expected to apply concepts we’ve learned about in this course in your paper. While
you are free to speculate, hypothesize, or guess about what is going on; you should not be
concerned with your own subjective interpretation. In other words, your personal opinions and
value statements are not a substitute for critical thinking.
• Avoid text-speak and/or phrases that you might use in everyday conversation … “slavery was,
like, the worst thing in history”; “There was one time when xxx happened”;. Also, avoid
excessive usage of personal language “you; I; we” etc. Of course you are more than free to use
“I”, “he”, “she”, etc. when they are necessary and in the sections where I’m expecting you to talk
about the experiences of you and your interlocutors, but there should be a balance between the
“story telling” part and the academic discussions. You should strive toward a stronger, more
formal writing style in your academic studies
THIS IS THE INFORMATION GIVEN DURING THE COURSE WORK THAT SHOULD USED IN THE REPORT:
Discussion Post #1 Question: This week’s discussion forum is a chance to invite you to start thinking sociologically. Think about the role of time, space, and social location play in all of our lives (aka where you are, when you are, who you are) and how those sociologically matter determining your experiences. Then, please complete the following assignment: State and explain how your life might have been different if you had been born in a different time period and/or lived in a different place and/or occupied a different social location (i.e. you belonged to a different socio-economic class, were from a different ethnical background, were born somewhere else than your current country of origin). Now compare your two selves (real and imagined, it helps if you give your imagined self a name so we can keep it clear who you are talking about). Who has a better chance of going to and graduating from college? why? Who has a better chance of getting a good job? why? Will interactions with law enforcement or politicians be different for the two? Next, try and find some interesting comparisons that offer useful sociological insights. Make a point that is valid and that I’ve never heard before. I challenge you. You can keep playing with different variations of time, space, and social location. Lastly, in your own words, write why it is useful to think about and understand the influence that things like when and where you are born and who you have on your life.
Discussion Post #2 Question: Pick a cultural artifact that represents either the material or the non-material culture that shapes you through socialization and reminds you that you’re part of a broader society beyond the individual level.Artifacts (see the news piece for an example) can be drawn from popular culture, media, literature, art, drama, daily life, your personal history (a tattoo, a toy, etc.), or history in general. For example, a rap song can be an artifact that represents the subculture, micro-culture, counterculture, or global culture that you are affiliated with.
Take a picture of the artifact if it is possible/convenient, or share the link, and describe it in a few sentences. (2 points)
Explain its importance and relevancy by using TWO CONCEPTS from the week’s content. (2 points each=4 points)
How do these cultural artifacts influence your way of life and the way you interact with others both in verbal and nonverbal ways? Is it helping or not helping you to fit in with the norms? (4 points)
How would your behavior be different if this cultural artifact did not exist? Do you want to carry the legacy of what this cultural artifact represents to the next generations (See the TedTalk uploaded under this week’s content)? (4 points)
How would one of the theories of culture (Symbolic interaction, Structural-functional, Conflict, Middle-range theories) in the coursebook, explain the cultural artifact you’ve picked? Choose one of them and tell by using proper academic citation style (ASA, APA, MLA, Chicago etc.) you choose (if you need more information, see the ASA guidelines under the Assignment Guidelines folder). (4 point)
Discussion Post #5 Question: Select a song (it can be anything) that you find analyzable with concepts and theories of race and ethnicity. The song can be in any language or without lyrics, but please include the English translation of the lyrics for the part that you are specifically discussing since our medium of communication in this class is English.
You may want to talk about your response should include:
The name of the song and the artist(s), and the YouTube link of the song/video. English translation of the song if applicable (3 points)
A brief contextual explanation of why you have selected this song (the history of the song, the artist, the community identified with this song, etc.) (3 points)
Three concepts from this week’s course material (you can select anything from the materials that I’ve provided on D2L).
Provide the definition of the selected concept and cite the resource properly. (2 points each-6 points in total)
Analysis of your song using the selected concepts. Please make explicit connections and explanations instead of abstract and shallow ones. Please ensure you address all the concepts you selected. (2 points each-6 points in total)
Assignment #6: In this assignment you will be using photovoice, a method of research that captures and reflects social reality – in this case, your gendered reality.
-Take a series of photos (two or three, but more if you like) that show how you experience gender. These photos could be anything – self-portraits, material goods, the environment, etc. Feel free to be creative; don’t try to make them “perfect”. (4 points each=8 points in total) Title your photos and describe them as if you were captioning for sight-impaired people. (2 points each=4 points in total) Pick three theories/concepts from this week’s content. Give the definitions of the concepts and cite the resource properly. (please use the course content instead of unreliable resources). Explain their relevance to theories and concepts in this week’s chapter and across the course. How do your photos encapsulate gender roles and gender socialization? How do they illustrate the way you “do gender”? Which theory/ies of gender explain your experience best? (5 points each=15 points in total)
PLEASE CHOOSE AN IMAGINARY INTERVIEWEE FOR THE REPORT WHO IS A AMERICAN(WHITE) MALE WHO IS 20 YEARS OLD, BECAUSE I AM INDIAN(BROWN) WOMAN, 20 YEARLS OLD, WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN INDIA. MAKE SURE THE REPORT INCLUDES EVERYTHING THAT IS REQUIRED, PLEASE IMAGINE THE ANSWERS TO ALL THE QUESTIONS BECAUSE THERE IS NO ACTUAL INTREVIEW.
MY PERSONAL RESPONSES FOR EACH DISCUSSION ADN ASSIGNMENT AR ATTATCHED BELOW INCASE IT IS NEEDED FOR A COMPARISON WITH THE INTERVIEWEE.
IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS OR ANY MATERIAL REQUIRED PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PING ME ON THE CHAT.
