Research Paper will argue for an advocacy position on an issue of your own choosing built upon your years of experience and educational foundation gained here at CSUSM. The goal of the alternative project class is to create an original research project that showcases your mastery of learning objectives in the major. To that end, your Research Project will argue for an advocacy position on an issue of your own choosing.
The project is an opportunity to ask yourself the following among other considerations:
● What would you like to see change or improve in society?
● For whom in particular might such changes and improvements make a helpful difference?
● Where and when would such changes and improvements be most/ least effective?
● Why should institutions, organizations, policies, and practices – and the people that influence them – have stakes in the
changes and improvements you propose?
● How should these changes and improvements take place?
This semester you will do the scholarly work involved in building a case for your advocacy position based on your reflections on these questions. You will examine how historical systems of power based on race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. have shaped contemporary systems, policies, organizational practices, behaviors, and attitudes in terms of the published research scholarship on that issue. As such, extensive library research is expected for depth of analysis, and will involve YOUR evaluation of peer-reviewed scholarly research that engages your advocacy position. On-going writing skill development is supported using digital and visual tools, too.
