Assignment Overview
The purpose of this final project is to weave together and synthesize the course materials, class discussions, and general concepts that came up throughout our Sociology of Gender course this semester. The final project will allow for plenty of flexibility—students can choose both their own topics as well as their preferred format for this project. If you would like to collaborate with others on a project rather than working on one alone, please talk to me in advance and we can work out a plan.
Choosing Your Topic
Your final project topic should be something that you find sociologically interesting. It should also relate to at least one of the following areas that we covered this semester: Indigenous and colonial foundations of gender; “doing” and “performing” gender; intersectionality; social movements; and/or gender and social institutions. It is completely fine (and encouraged!) to cover more than one of these units in your project.
Make sure that you are very clear on what your project is about, and that you analyze a specific topic in-depth (see guiding questions and more details below). For example, choosing a topic simply about “gender in the media” is far too broad. Using this as an example, some questions you might ask are, what about gender in the media are you attempting to understand and analyze? The news media? Social media? TV and film? How various women characters are portrayed? Masculinities? Trans, non-binary, or
gender non-conforming representation? The intersections of gender and race on your favorite tv show? And the list could go on and on. As you can see, it is important to explicitly focus your project on a specific topic, and to stay away from grand ideas that are too big to consider in one small project.
If you are having trouble choosing your topic, I recommend asking the following:
● Is there a topic from class that really stood out to you? If so, how can you turn
your interest in that topic into a project?
● Is there something that you were hoping we would cover in class that we didn’t,
that you’d like to analyze from a gender lens?
● Do you have particular interests in topics related to gender that you would like to
explore more in-depth?
A standard research paper
Guiding Questions
No matter which topic or format you choose, your project should consider the following questions:
● Why did you pick your topic? Why is it important or interesting to you?
● How does your topic relate to the course material? Be clear, specific, and give
plenty of examples.
○ Make sure to use terms that we have covered throughout the semester
(and include citations when necessary).● Why do you think your topic exists in society as a social phenomenon? How
can you understand and analyze it using a sociological lens?○ If applicable, you can also include your critiques in your analysis. If you
do so, make sure to ground these critiques in sociology, too, not just from
a moral lens.
● In general, what do you want people to know about your topic, particularly using
sociology to understand it?
● How does your topic relate to the following:
○ Individual experiences of gender (including identity, expression, and everyday interactions)
○ Group-level experiences of gender
○ Structural components of society (e.g. social institutions)
○ Systems of power and oppression
○ Particularly focus on how all of these things might overlap, or even have a
reflexive relationship (meaning, that each impacts the other).
● Consider, when necessary, how things like context, culture, geography, time
period, or other societal structures might impact your topic.
● Is there anything else important or relevant to share about the analysis of your
chosen topic?
***IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep in mind that you are NOT just answering these questions in order. Your project should consider most of these questions, but you are using them as a guide, not as a map.***
Submitting the Assignment
Your final project will be due by Sunday, December 17th at 11:59pm. You can submit the write-up portion as a word document, google doc, or PDF, whichever is easier. I cannot accept files in .pages format, google docs that are private, or other unreadable formats.
Some important things to keep in mind for this assignment:
➔ Use details and elaborate on everything. Give examples and always make sure
to answer “why” and “how” questions.
➔ Regardless of the format you choose, you MUST cite your sources. Plagiarism
will not be tolerated. Utilize Purdue OWL if you need assistance.
➔ Follow the Guiding Questions above to make sure you are thorough in your
analysis. You won’t be simply answering all of the questions in order, but rather
using them as a guide to structure your project.
➔ You need to connect your projects to sociology and concepts/materials that
we have covered in class.
Length Requirements
➔ write a paper, it should be approximately between 1,200 to
1,800 words.
