Samples and Selections
A good source of ideas can come from perusing the Cyrus text, noting the introductions to the sections and skimming articles on topics still to come in the course. Often, since a topic must be defined early in the semester, topics which come later are not as commonly chosen --- such as social change, in this course.
Let us brainstorm, defining some project topics to stimulate our imagination.
A biography, including a family member, in which the
categories of this course are explained and manifest.- This could involve oral history or interviewing family members about the life of, say, a grandparent who migrated.
- Discover in more depth the situation of a particular
group germane to Social Issues or make connections between or
among groups.
- The many articles in the Cyrus reader scratch the surface but open the door to a theme in greater depth: Jewish women, African-American youth, Mexican immigrants, etc. You can combine class, ethnicity, and gender into your theme of choice.
- The biography of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,
or any aspect of the Civil Rights --- or other --- social movement.
- In our section on social change, we will see MLK in action in the Civil Rights movement
- Explore any of the categories or concepts used in
Social Issues
- Take a case or an aspect of such concepts as race, gender, social change, power, class, etc. and get into it through a case illustrating the concept or an aspect related to it, such as affirmative action or date rape.
- Explore a case of contemporary or past hate crime.
- Regrettably, there are many to choose from, such as Matthew Shepherd, a gay man murdered in Wyoming. Or other cases, such as aspects of lynching in the South.
