Now that your midterm presentations are over (yay!), it’s time to begin thinking about your final project topic!!! Here is what the syllabus says about my general expectations for the final project:
Final Project Presentations
All students will pursue an independent final research project on a thinker/artist/writer/ theme linked to the larger themes of our course; the principal output of this research will be a thoroughly-researched and thoughtfully-designed oral presentation made in the closing weeks of the semester. Students may work independently or collaboratively in groups. We will shape detailed parameters of the final project together. However, all students should plan to spend approximately 20-25 hours working on the final project and presentation in the last month of the semester, and should budget their time accordingly.
Here is some additional info. to consider:
All students must get their topics approved by me; oral presentations will be 15 mins. in length and take place in the last 2 weeks of class (I will assign you randomly to a slot on 1 of 4 days); your research should be reflected in a bibliography of at least 3 sources. All 3 of these sources must be peer-reviewed academic articles or books OR exhibition catalogs checked out from the library. (Additional sources, above and beyond the first 3, can of course be used and do not need to be peer-reviewed.) If you do not know how to find peer-reviewed sources or exhibition catalogs, or if you feel like you could use support in finding good ones, I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to make an appointment with a librarian. We will also do some work evaluating sources together in class.
Ideally, your final project research will focus on a SINGLE thinker/artist/writer, as this provides a natural frame and shape for your research. However, if you wish to work on a particular theme, genre, or question, involving multiple thinkers/artists/writers, this may be possible — though, again, you will have to get your topic approved (verbally, informally, in class) by me first. In choosing the thinker/artist/writer, you will research, you MAY wish to return to the syllabus and pick up loose threads/questions/references to other proper names that interested you there. OR you may wish to start down a completely new path.
IMPORTANT criteria for choosing a thinker/artist/writer:
Rationale: Are you able to articulate clearly, in a single sentence, what it is that is interesting/unusual/exciting/challenging/provocative about this thinker/artist/writer and their work to an audience that is unfamiliar with them/it? Before I approve your topic, I will ask you to articulate the rationale for your research (which should be there in some form at the beginning, even if it will morph and change).
Just liking somebody’s work or thinking it is amazing, while this can be important and help to motivate your research, is not enough to constitute a real rationale for selecting them!
Contribution to knowledge/practice connected with our course theme: Once you’ve articulated what is interesting/provocative about the thinker/artist/writer and their work, you will also have to articulate, in a second sentence, how their work addresses questions connected with, or at the intersection of, race and representation. Before I approve your topic, I will ask you to articulate its connection to the course theme.
Researchability: Are there enough academic, critical, or scholarly publications (peer-reviewed articles and books OR exhibition catalogs) available on this thinker/artist/writer? Do *not* rely on Google or even GoogleScholar to ascertain this. You must look at the Hampshire College/Five College library catalog. Before I approve your topic, I will ask you to show me that you have ascertained that there are at least THREE peer-reviewed articles or books AND/OR at least THREE exhibition catalogs (if an artist) available on the thinker/artist/writer you are proposing to work on, using the library catalog.
Wishing you good imagining/dreaming!