Guideline for Projects

1. Projects provide you the opportunity to do analysis of cultural artifacts yourself. Your guidelines should be the analyses performed by your readings.

2. What to analyze? Choose an artifact, either (a) one that is suggested by the readings themselves-something you want to follow up on; or (b) one that you choose and that you want to analyze using methods suggested by readings or discussions.

3. How to analyze?

a.     Research the artifact itself. As you are doing research, be sure to keep track of your sources.

b.     Use a method suggested by the readings. For instance, you can choose one of the five points of the "circuit of culture" discussed in Doing Popular Culture. If you decide to focus on consumption, be sure to be explicit about which method you are using-for instance, consumption as socio-cultural differentiation or consumption as appropriation and resistance.

c.     Sources. In addition to the basic research you will do, you must use at least two (2) academic articles (from books or journals or academic websites) that either deal with the artifact itself or are useful for the theory or methodology that you are using. For instance, if you decide to investigate a particular comic series, you should find 2 academic articles that either deal with that particular comic or deal with comics in general, or deal with the approach you are using (say, "production of consumption").

d.      You would be well served, for the purpose of these projects, to get yourself training in the use of library databases, if you have not already done so.

4. Outline: The outline should describe (1) the artifact, (2) the resources you will use for doing your research, (3) the approach you plan to use, and (4) the academic articles you will consult. Give full citations for articles or books you intend to use.

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