Please Follow all Instructions PAPER must be written professionally
Due Dates
- Your paper uploaded to Canvas by Thursday October 22, 5 pm
- Comment on Student Paper posted on Canvas by Sunday, October 25, midnight
Length
2.5-3 pages (do not including your personal information; the writing should itself should be 2.5 pages minimum. No fillers)
Format
double-spaced, times new roman font, 1-inch margins all around. Please use word for your papers. I have a hard time opening and commenting on other formats
Percentage of Grade
This assignment is 100 points or 30% of your grade.
Part I. Paper Prompt (80 points)
For this short paper, think about issues we have examined in first few weeks of class (readings and films) to think about issues of women, gender and political participation and leadership in relation to the 2020 elections (both at the primary level (past) and the general election (in November)).
You will identity two campaigns to follow and conduct an intersectional analysis of race, gender, sexuality, citizenship and class of the elections. You MUST do some light research and find an issue of interest to you. You can use newspaper articles, peer-reviewed academic journal articles, radio shows dedicated to the topic, TV shows, or only credible on-line publications as you do research. (please avoid random individual blog posts, wiki pages and other such writings). You MUST include either the link or the citation of the source at the end of your paper. So, for example, you may choose to look at one of the following issues:
- How does the topic of gender, feminism or women’s rights figure in election debates of your choice?
- What issues seem to matter to female candidates of color and white female candidates? Differences? Similarities? (you don’t have to contrast and compare them—it’s just an idea)
- What are some of the barriers and life experiences do female candidates have to overcome and how do they contrast with their opponent (if not a female candidate)
- how do various media sources portray female candidates compared to their male counterparts? What gendered discourse do they use?
- What are the key differences between feminist and conservative women in various races? What issues matter to conservative and progressive women? How does each group approach their being female candidates? Where do they converge and diverge? Does race/class/region/career/religion shape conservativism and progressivism? (again, you don’t have to do them all…these are just to get you going)
- What is the role of women behind the scenes of campaigns, as managers, organizers, supporters?
- How do women’s rights and LGBTQI issues figure in this election cycles?
- How do trans rights figure in this election cycle?
- How has Black Lives Matter shaped the way the candidates address race, gender and policing?
- How is reproductive rights playing out this election? Where do conservative candidates and progressive candidates fall on this issue? If they are both pro choice, is there a difference in where they draw the line? If the women are from the red states, how do they navigate the rise of anti-abortion laws in red states.
- Why do voters perceive female candidates?
- How do different candidates across racial, class and gender lines treat the Covid-19 crisis?
- Something else of your choice (needs approval).
You can approach your topic numerous ways. For example, you can look at:
- Media and representation: You can conduct an intersectional comparison of one media source and its treatment of two candidates (could be male-female/conservative-feminist/cisgender-noncisgender/single-married/white-nonwhite/two different candidates of color/straight-queer etc.). You can compare two or more media sources in how they treat one female candidate (depending on the media’s political orientation, what matters or is ignored about candidates may vary).
- Policy: You can look closely at two candidates’ specific policies that matter to women/feminism comparing and contrasting their differences (obvious one is abortion but you can also look at policing, health care, housing, child care, family leave, the environment, job creation, militarism, immigration etc.).
- Voters: You can look at what matters to female voters and see how they perceive the candidates on policy, character, etc.
What kind of things can you evaluate to answer your questions? Again, many things:
- Campaign speeches
- Campaign websites
- Interview your friends and relatives
- Look at national polls
- Evaluate news sources such as talk shows or news coverage or newspaper headlines or feature stories for their words, images, etc. in how they cover candidates
- Follow political blogs
- Follow supporters’ content on Youtube or other social media
- “Attend” political events
In your paper, be sure to:
- have a hook for your introduction so you draw in the reader and clearly state your topic and the question you set out to answer early in the paper. In order to do be clear about your topic, you will need to spend time thinking about the most important details readers need to know, which is harder than it seems, so take your time and revise and talk to me).
- explain and define key terms, provide relevant background information and context about the candidates, campaigns, policies, media sources etc. that you refer to. Imagine that explaining your project to an alien visiting earth and has no idea what concepts like elections, politics, feminism, conservatism mean let alone what candidates you are talking about so be sure to cover the basics and don’t assume your reader is on the same page.
- have some kind of argument/thesis/claim about your topic based on your analysis, even if it is light research
- draw on at least one legitimate outside source (articles, books, in-depth magazine features) that discusses your topic and guides your analysis
- connect your topic to the themes and issues in at least at least 2 relevant course materials (This could be 2 readings or 1 reading and one film) we covered in class such as feminism, oppression, power, resistance, intersectionality, reforming institutions form within or without, agency, etc. Make sure you discuss how/why this issue has some significance for women’s/gender issues in the contemporary U.S. Don’t just randomly stick in a quote that does help you build a strong analysis.
- Edit your papers. Editing Checklist:
- Use author full name the first time you mention them and then use last name (no first name in papers)
- Cite your sources properly, including author last, page number where you got quotes or ideas, and works cited page
- limit your direct quotes to 2-3 lines max.
- Organize your paragraphs clearly making sure to:
- use clear topic sentences that summarize the key point in the paragraph
- include supporting sentences that lend support to your topic sentence
- stick to one key point per paragraph
- limit paragraph length to 6-7 sentences max
- have good transitioning sentences between paragraphs
- pay special attention to run on sentences, sentence fragments, ambiguous pronoun use, passive voice sentence constructions, and spelling errors
Part II. Commenting on another student’s paper (20 points)
You will be randomly assigned one student /paper to review and respond to (1/2 paragraph or so). You may comment on how your own paper to the topic that this student is writing about; what is similar to or different from the issues your paper examines. You could also relate your peer’s paper to the readings. Or, if you know nothing about the topic, pick one think that interested you and respond substantially about why it caught your attention and what larger issue it makes you think about. You don’t have to love the paper—you just need to be thoughtful about its content. You will receive student papers automatically on October 22. Please respond to your peer by midnight on Sunday October 25.
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