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Further information and guidelines for successful completion of each assignment will be posted below.
- Research Project and In-Class Presentation
PROJECTS
Purpose:
Based
on the assumption that “Gender is Everywhere,” each student will
investigate
a topic of his or her choice asking the question, “What
can this teach us about the history or practice of gender, gender
theory, gender
roles, and/or gender relations?”
Sign-Up:
Each
student
must sign up for a presentation time and declare a project topic no
later
than Thursday, September 2. Only
two students may present projects during
any class period, and presentation dates will be assigned on a
first
come, first served basis. Students may request the date of their choice
either
in person, over the phone, or by email to scditto@olemiss.edu.
Students
who fail to sign up for a topic and presentation date by Tuesday
September 7 may be assigned one.
Projects:
Each
student
will conduct individual research that culminates in a paper or other
type of
project.
Projects
may take the form of
-
a traditional
research paper --
formal in style, a minimum of six pages long, and must include
citations (footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical references) and either
a
bibliography or list of works cited
-
a film,
video, slide show, powerpoint, or other media presentation
-
an
exhibit, scrapbook, photographic collection, or similar
three-dimensional
presentation
-
a
painting, sculpture, interpretative dance, dramatic reenactment or
other
example type of art work
-
an
original poem, story, song, or other literary work
-
an
interview or interviews, survey, or similar anthropological or
sociological
study
Topics
may
be either historical (such as a biographical sketch of a particular
person
important to the history of gender or a gender theorist) or
contemporary (such
as a survey about date rape on the Ole Miss campus).
| Some interesting project topic ideas include: | |
| -
a
comparison of men’s and women’s roles in ancient -
the
meanings of the veil in Islamic cultures -
Christian
biblical influences on ideas about gender in Western culture -
witch
hunts in medieval -
ideals
regarding motherhood and/or fatherhood (in any time period or periods) -
rape -
abortion -
domestic
abuse -
birth
control -
HIV/AIDS -
female genital mutilation (FGM) -
Sigmund
Freud -
Michel
Foucault -
Judith
Butler -
Madonna -
Rue Paul -
“Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy” - homosexuals, transsexuals, and/or transgendered individuals (in any time period) |
-
the idea
of “sisterhood” or “brotherhood” (in Greek organizations, feminist
literature,
evangelical churches, or any other context) -
differences in the dress, toys, upbringing and/or educational
expectations of
male and female children -
the importance
(or unimportance) of virginity in different cultures -
power
relationships between African American men and women (in slavery, the
Civil
Rights movement, and/or today) -
the myth
of the strong black women -
housework
and “labor-saving” household appliances -
gender-focused
advertising -
clothing,
make-up, hair, and other forms of gender “costume” -
gender
bending films (such as -
Queer Theory -
courtship
and dating (in any time period or periods) -
the sexual
double standard -
the woman
suffrage movement in the |
On
the appointed date, students will hand in the written
portion of their project and make an approximately 10-15 minute
presentation to
the class. Depending on the nature of the project, presentations may
consist of
oral summaries, display and description of creations, performances,
demonstrations, or media presentations, or various kinds of exhibits.
Students
must make arrangements for any necessary audio/visual or
other equipment required for their presentations. (The
History
Dept. has a TV, VCR, overhead projector, slide projector, and
PowerPoint
projector that students may borrow if they reserve the equipment in
advance.)
Written
Summary:
In
addition
to the project and presentation, each student (except those who write
traditional research papers) must hand in a 3 – 5 page summary of
his/her
project that includes at least the following information:
-
the title
of your project
-
a
description of what kind of research you conducted or other work you
performed
toward completion of the project
-
a
discussion of what your research shows about the history or practice of
gender,
gender theory, gender roles, and/or gender relations.
The project,
presentation, and written summary together will account for 20
percent of your
final course grade.