For your final paper students will be asked to apply feminist concepts, frameworks, and theories to analyze a cultural artifact OR a current event in a 5-7pg double spaced research paper.

Below you will find a step-by-step instruction of this assignment. Please choose ONE or the two prompts to shape your research question and thesis. Additionally, there is an example outline of how this paper could be organized.

This assignment is intended to help you showcase not only what you have learned in the class but to practice doing feminist research and writing. All papers should make an argument and take up the important issues of power and social justice.

1.Step One: Pick Prompt, Find an Object of Analysis

a.For this paper you must find something to analyze. You can choose ONE of two types of prompts.

b.Prompt 1: Cultural

i.Cultural artifacts can be anything within popular, artistic, and social cultures.

ii.Examples:

1.A song

2.An artist (pick a specific work from their collection)

3.An episode/character from TV show

4.Literary trope

5.Poem/Creative Writing

6.Digital and/or Social Media Trend

c.Prompt 2: Current Event

i.A current event is any newsworthy occurrence that has happened within the last year (but can be contextualized within a longer timeline).

ii.Examples:

1.The Overturning of Roe V Wade in US

2.Climate Crisis (Climate Bill)

3.Banning of Library Books (LGBTQ and Drag Reading Hours)

4.Social Justice and/or Political Movement (Globally)

d.Whatever type of artifact to analyze you pick it should relate to issues of gender and power. You should be able to speak to your object from a feminist standpoint and provide contextualization (previous feminist work) of it.

2.Step Two: Collect your research

a.Start doing your reading and research of your given topic. Answering some of these questions:

i.Explain your object (describe it/contextualize it)

ii.How does it relate to the frameworks, theories, and/or political goals of feminist movements?

iii.What have feminist said about it previously?

iv.How has this changed?

v.Why do you see this object important?

vi.What does this object/event say about structures of power (patriarchy, racial capitalism, ect.)?

vii.How does it relate to the liberatory efforts of feminist aims? How would you imagine a feminist future?

b.Requirements!!

i.Your Paper must have AT LEAST 5 scholarly sources, with 2 coming from our course.

ii.Please be sure to check if your source is a scholarly source (peer-reviewed) news articles are definitely ok to use but do not count towards your required source (as they are not scholarly).

iii.Check out more here.

iv.You can use any kind of citation style but it must be consistent (including in-text citation) and you must include a bibliography.

3.Step Three: WRITE!

a.Once you have your research collected it is time to write!!

b.Focus on organizing and outlining. Your paper should be well organized with a clear thesis statement

i.Thesis statements are one concise sentence which summarizes the overall argument of the paper. Your thesis statement acts the guiding principle for the paper, each section of your paper should refer back to it adding to your argument. Please underline your thesis for clarity.