Social Movements Term Paper
disagree. in order to bring about a more rapid victory and prevent the deaths of more Americans. However, it was clearly not moral to use this weapon knowing that it would kill civilians and destroy the urban milieu.
In order for you to think creatively about the world around you, you will write a short paper (minimum 4 full pages, maximum 5 full pages) on a topic that relates to the sociological study of social movements.
Requirements:
- Minimum of 4 FULL pages, a maximum of 5 full pages. Points will be deducted for not meeting the minimum requirement, e.g. 3.5 pages of content. Points will also be deducted for inappropriate spacing or fonts that deducts from content.
- You must have 5 academic sources. Please see the Academic Source Guidelines document to make sure that your sources meet the requirements and that you cite them correctly.
- You must use your academic sources to receive credit for them. “Using them” means citing them in your writing when you source their ideas, using proper in-text citation.
- You must formulate a coherent sociological analysis, explain the social and cultural context surrounding your social movement topic. This means that you should not just submit a timeline of events, but provide analysis of why events occurred.
Rubric:
- 20 points for academic sources
- 4 points for each source
- They must meet the requirements for academic sources and be cited properly for full credit.
- 30 points for writing
- Make sure that your writing follows conventions of grammar and style.
- Make sure that your writing is clear and you have conveyed what you mean to say.
- Strive to “elevate” your writing style, choosing vocabulary and sentence structures that are appropriate for college writing.
- You may choose to visit the writing center for extra help to strengthen your paper.
- 50 points for sociological analysis
- Avoid biological and essentialist understandings of the world.
- Avoid “it’s just the way it is” and “it’s always been that way” kinds of answers.
- Cite sociologists and other social scientists to ensure that your argument is placed within a larger constellation of social arguments.
Topic:
- You have two choices for your paper: either a research paper or experiential paper
CHOICE A: The Research Paper
- Choose a topic that relates to the study of social movements. You’ll want to avoid timeline/historical accounts, since you’re being asked to provide analysis about the social contexts that give rise to activism.
- Two examples of how to proceed:
- I. Choose a movement present a conflict, a way they sustained their movement, a pivotal protest, the way they’ve been presented in media, etc.
- II. Choose a movement pattern (intergenerational conflict, moving toward respectability politics, becoming part of the establishments, etc.) connect it to various movements and compare how it plays out.
CHOICE B: The Experiential Paper
- The concept of this paper is that it merges experience-based knowledge and academic theories about the nature of social movements. You should get to have the experience of some aspect of a social movement in community with like-minded people and then take those experiences and create an academic argument about some aspect of social movement building. This is meant to be a creative paper, and this is a prompt for you to think creatively about movements.
How to proceed:
I. Choose a Day of Action: Choose to attend at least one event related to social movements (masked, socially distant, and COVID-safe(r), of course) – a planning meeting, an educational event, a protest, a legislative hearing. I will even accept content analysis of digital discussion about movement building.
II. Choose a Paper Focus: Choose a topic that relates to an aspect of your Day of Action.
- EXAMPLES from your DOA: Content based topics
- A history of the movement you participated in
- Current activism across the country related to activism your group participated in
- Examples from your DOA: Tactical/Process Topics
- the decision making process in a group meeting
- the “intensities of activism” and how people come together in activism
- how effective protests are in the face of current legislation
- the effectiveness of coalition building
- student activism
III. Create an Argument
You should take a position on your topic (e.g. Are the tactics used in your movement useful? Can students create change?) and build an academic stance.
This is not (only) a narrative paper
- Your experience is important. Please include your thoughts and feelings about the Day of Action if you see fit, but do not make this a reflection paper.
- Always link your experiences with a larger analysis about how activism works.
This is a research paper
- You are writing about what social movement scholars have to say about activism. Find research that supports your ideas about how people build movements.