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Syllabus Paper Guidelines Timeline Rwanda Timeline 303 : Race and Ethnicity : Paper Guidelines Description of Project from Syllabus: A 4-7 page paper that analyzes one book (not an article from a magazine or the Internet) written about the experience of race relations and/or process of political struggle for racial change in a given country. This book can be an autobiography, but not a work of fiction. Your paper will need to do the following: 1) Set the context for the book - That is, lay out the race/ethnic relations context for the country in question. 2) Briefly present the story/topics that are covered in the book. 3) Respond to the claims that the author of the book makes (so, yes, you’ll have to identify the claims they are making). How do you evaluate these claims given what you have learned in class? (Yes, you’ll have to consciously and explicitly incorporate course concepts. 4) Use at least two other scholarly assessments of the book (I.e. book reviews) in developing your paper. You will need to get an official okay from me regarding the book that you choose. I do not want you writing it on a book that you have read for another class - i.e. the very commonly read Autobiography of Malcolm X or Maya Angelou’s "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings," etc. . While these are very worthwhile books, I want you to push to read other things you haven’t read before. Deadlines: October 18th - 3/x5 card with name of book November 29th - Draft of Paper December 13th - Final Paper Due Mechanics: 4-7 Pages, Double Spaced, size 12 point, please number the pages, include an appropriate bibliography of works cited. If you do not know how to cite books appropriately, please see your librarian and/or look at the reference format in the back of the academic books you are currently reading. Whatever "official" format you choose, please be consistent throughout your paper. Guidelines for choosing a book: If you look at an international situation the book can be no more than 15 years old. Remember to look for a book that addresses issues of racial/ethnic inequality in that country, or where applicable, between members of one society and members of another where the dynamics have a racial/ethnic character. For instance, topics could include (but don’t need to be limited to): • Genocidal practices in Rwanda/Botswana • The Troubles in Ireland (though people tend to focus on the religious difference - the roots of it come from British and Scottish colonization of Ireland in the 1400 and 1500’s. The Native Irish were Catholic and the British and Scots were Protestant. This colonization is the root of the contemporary problems). • Situation of Brazilian Indians or Afro-Brazilian peoples in Brazil (or Afro-Carribean people through Carribean/Latin Amercan) Examples of books (including autobiographies): Benita de Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love. The Burning Season: the Murder of Chico Mendez and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women’s Movements in Transition Politics. • Blacks, East Indians in Britian • East Indians and European descendant people in Africa • South Africa: (Possible titles include): Tomorrow is Another Country Anatomy of a Miracle • Algerians in France • Situation of Mixed race people around the world • Hawaii - as it pertains to racial/ethnic mixing Books on the U.S.: If you want to read a book on the US, please choose a book published in the last ten (10) years and generally about a contemporary issue. Also, please do not focus on something like the religious practices of a particular group, but instead look at works which address their location in relation to the larger society. Autobiographies are fine - though make sure that race/ethnicity is a central feature of the book. Please do not choose the most common books that are used to study a given group. For instance: The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Black Elk Speaks; Works by Maya Angelou (which are excellent but some of which are more personal empowerment stories). There are many books that are more current and which have been written as well, if not better. Give those people a chance and expand your horizons. If you want to read a book that falls outside of these time guidelines, please talk with me and lets try and agree on something. You must turn in a 3x5 inch card no later than February 28th that lists the book you want to read. If you have already chosen a book, please hand in a WRITTEN request to me for a go-ahead with this book. On the card please include your name, the book citation (author, year, title, publisher), and the main theme of the book (you don’t have to read the book ahead of time to figure this out – just skim the book, read the description on the back, etc). After Reading the Book: 1). After reading the book (and taking notes throughout!) you will need to think about what holes or gaps you find in the work. What does the book focus on? For instance, we have been addressing the roles of institutions in perpetuating racial inequality - does your book address that? If not, why do you think that is? Does the book have a message about social change; if so, what is it? How does that compare to the variety of approaches that we’ve looked at in this class? What does the book propose is the main thing that holds people back? If there is a specific message of the book what is it? 2) After you’ve thought about some of this on your own, go look up at least two book reviews. Try and find book reviews that speak to the content of the work - and try and find at least one review that is critical of the book you read. You must incorporate these reviews, and the issues they raise, into your paper. Do not do this by writing separate paragraphs where you give me a mini-review of the book reviews. Instead, incorporate these reviews in relation to your own reflections on the book. Do you agree with the reviews? Did they raise issues you hadn’t thought of? If the reviews suggest that there is a big hole in the book you read - something that really makes it "suspect" as far as a legitimate source for knowledge about the topic you are investigating - you should probably address that. 3) Finally, the point of this paper is for you to do some reading and use the concepts and ideas you’ve learned in this class to analyze what you’ve read. You are using your "critical thinking skills" to use a university buzzword and since you are Sociology majors, you are also using your sociological skills. As you use concepts and ideas from this course, you should cite where they come from. For instance, if you use an idea from the Johnson book, cite it, reference it, let me know that you don’t think you came up with this idea all on your own. If it’s an idea or phrase specifically from lecture, then cite the date of the lecture in the body of the text (Eichstedt lecture, 9/18/99). Drafts and Final Paper: Remember that you have to write drafts of your work. I need to see a draft from you on April 25th. Part of your grade is contingent on you producing a viable draft. This means that you come with a paper that is a minimum of four pages long, typed, etc. The point is you should have done a fair amount of the work for this paper prior to April 25th. The final paper is due May 7th. If you would like to turn in your work prior to this date, that is fine. May 7th is merely the LAST day that you can turn this work in. You might not want to turn it in too far in advance, however, since you do need to incorporate course concepts and ideas (and you want to be "sociological" since you are sociology majors). |
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