Student Projects

Guidelines for the Group Project:

The main goal of the group project is to develop an informed, substantiated analysis of a social, political, and/or cultural issue within the theoretical framework of one or more of the thinkers we have discussed in this course. You may choose your format of choice for presenting the topic. Interactive methods are most welcome.

1)Take some time to do preliminary, background research on the topic of your choice. Define your terms and develop a framework that will enable you to focus on your topic. What knowledge can you draw upon within the group? What makes your topic compelling and provocative? (Choose an aspect of your topic that will elicit debate!) Come up with a clear thesis statement that describes your main premise.

2) Prepare a work schedule that is realistic and fair. Who will be doing what? When will you be meeting? How will you exchange information among yourselves? What resources do you require and how will you access them? Agree about specific dates for completion of different stages of your project. Allow time for me and/or the course mentor to discuss your project with you.

3)Prepare an outline of your project in which you state the following (Due April 11th):

a. Major questions and thesis: Be as specific as possible. Pay attention to how you represent the issue at hand and be prepared to represent the different sides to the issue, as well as support your own approach and argument.

b. Proposed theoretical approach and methodology including list of sources and rationale for applying the theory to the problem.

c. Existing evidence on the topic.

d. Method of evaluating and framing the evidence. Are you basing your analysis on prior knowledge? Are you making judgements when you should be describing? Are you exploring the meaning of your analysis and its possible impact?

e. Specific tasks of each member of the group

f. What are the goals of your investigation? What to you want to achieve?

4) The presentation may be in the form of a lecture, debate, role-play, case study, and/ or creative production. Your grade will be based on the effectiveness of your argument and creativity of your presentation as well as your demonstrated ability to apply theory to a specific problem. A successful presentation will elicit questions and comments from the rest of the class. Part of your grade will be based on your ability to engage other students in the topic at hand and to respond to their questions and comments. The presentation is to be no longer than one hour, including discussion.