Oil on Water (Julia , Telma and Agnieska)

 

Sacagawea (1788 - ??)

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Final Essays

Proposal of final research essay; choose one type

A. Criticizing the "unexamined assumptions" or other "weak" / arguable points in an article (with possible related texts) assigned for the Cultural Geography course

B. Using qualitative research methods (interview or SWOT analysis - please see articles on how to conduct this, uploaded to the Moodle platform) to study an environmental NGO or activist collective Some movements you may want to research:

- Ecology Democracy Network (Midwest): http://ecologydemocracynetwork.org/ 

- Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition (South) : https://www.kystudentenvironmentalcoalition.org, just one of several collectives who have joined the platform Climate Justice Alliance (you can search for more here, https://climatejusticealliance.org/members-of-the-alliance/)

- Sunrise Movement, sunrisemovement.org : youth movement for climate justice, its scope is wide, but you can either select a regional hub, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/hubs/, or a focus/theme, e. g. "the Green New Deal", here https://www.sunrisemovement.org/green-new-deal/

- FFF Washington: https://fridaysforfuturewash.wixsite.com/washington (just one of the Fridays for Future US locations you can find here (https://fridaysforfutureusa.org/local-groups/)

C. "artivism" project (check concept here https://beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/artivism/) targeted to an environmental or social demographic problem in a specific place of the US

RULES and DEALINES

i) you can write an individual essay or team up with a colleague; final essay, if A or B, should be between 1600-1800 word if individual, or 2500-2900 if by two persons; if C, it should have a rationale of up to 1000 word (1 person) or 1500 (2) (word range is for essay only (Bibliography + TItle Page info with Title, Student name, Academic year, TP, etc. does not count).

ii) by April 9 you have to deliver to the teacher, by email, an essay outline with annotated bibiliography (max. 2 pages TOTAL); it is highly recommended that you discuss with the teacher your choice of paper, texts and/or topic(s)

Suggestion of Essay Outline + annotated bibliography

1. Suggested Title  +  General Theme and relevance within American Cultural Geography / outlook towards the notion of nature and / or environmental justice

2. Research question(?)

3. Simple identification of the reasoning for criticizing an article or text / OR the mission and methods/lines of action of your chosen activist groups and how you intend to investigate them (interview / SWOT analysis ) / OR "artivism" project targeted to an environmental or social demographic problem in a specific place of the US

4. Expected outcomes

5. Annotated bibliography - where you reference and explain briefly at least two sources that you plan to use - ONE at least has to be a scholarly article (from JSTOR or other databases - you can search them in elibrary USA or in google scholar) - see an example in the second part of this post). Preferred citation style is that of MLA 9th

iii) you should bring at least 2/3 of your essays, printed out (2 copies) to the peer-revision class on April 28th. Non-attendance of this class will make you automatically lose 10% out of the 25% the final paper is worth.

iv) Final papers should be delivered on May 16th, by 12 a. m., both printed out (in my pigeon-hole in the English Studies Department) and through the Moodle platform.

Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (anthology p. 151)

 1. Langston Hughes's poem talks to the mobility heritage of the Africans and African-Americans. Studying a little about Hughes's biography, why does he refer the specific rivers in the poem? To what moment does the recollection of the Mississippi belong to in History and how does the poet's description of this moment impact on you?

2. Born in Missouri, Hughes is himself a product of the migration North, or internal disapora, referred to by bell hooks in the excerpt of pp. 125-127. According to hooks, how did the "great migration" impact the psyche of black people who moved from the rural South to the industrial North at the turn of the 20th century?

Wet Globalization (presentation by Leticia, Natalia and Pedro)

MISSISSIPPI - MAPS, FACTS, MYTHS

 

                                                                   Mississippi Watershed Map

                                                           Mississippi River Map

                      TRACKS documentary: Secrets of the Mississippi / The River that MadeAmerica

                                                     Huck Finn's Course down the Mississippi

                                            Yoknapatawpha County drawn by W. Faulkner, 1946

                    

                                             Cultural and Geographic Regions of Mississippi State

                                                         Faulkner's home region: Oxford, Lafayette County

William Faulkner's fictional maps of Yoknapatawpha: http://faulkner.iath.virginia.edu/media/resources/DISPLAYS/FaulknerMapsHP.html

Langston Hughes,"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1920)

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

                                     Nina Simone, "Mississippi Goddamn" (1965)