Major Project #1 - Synthesis

So far, we've gone over both material and ideological cultural artifacts: food, music, and ideas of the nation in film. Additionally, we've had extensive discussions about what culture means to you, how that's changed, how we make meaning, and the prevalence of keywords in cultural studies. 

As such, your goal for this assignment is to craft a synthesis paper about two keyword pairings, which I'll explain below. Be mindful to choose a pair that is open to meaningful critique–essentially, ensure that the pair you chose you feel strongly enough to write about. You're effectively practicing skills of synthesis, ultimately trying to answer the questions of how can we look at each word individually, and how does our view of each word change when we bring them into conversation w/ each other?

Choose a pairing from the following:

• Food & Location: Think about the Ugly Delicious documentary and its focus on pizza changing in different locations, and how the food itself has changed through shifting histories and cultures. Essentially, this option will ask you to choose a food (either a singular food item or a larger cuisine) of your choice, and trace its history and change through different cultures. For example, if you choose Spaghetti, examine its historic roots in its country of origin, how it entered into American culinary mainstream, and the way people have changed and adapted it depending on where its made. Consider if your chosen food item is even considered mainstream, or how it is/isn't presented as authentic. Consider examining recipes for this option as well, noting how each recipe is different/alike, and how each author frames their understanding of the recipe. 
• Music & Activism: Think back to your album review/playlist curation, and how your chosen album/playlist was one you connected with on a personal level. Now think about how music can play a role in activism or social change. For this option, pick an album/song that was the soundtrack to a historic social movement, explaining how the song became linked with that specific moment of social change. Was the album/song written because of the social climate at the time? Or was it merely adopted into it? You'll need to do some background research on social movements that you find interesting, whether it was the BLM protests in 2020, the counterculture rise in the 1960's, or protests against war through the 2000's up until today. Music is one of our primary ways of connection, so think about how music shifts from your personal connection to it into a larger backdrop of social and political activism. Focus primarily on the context of the song/album and its creation, how involved were the artist(s) in specific social movements, and how heavy-handed the music's commentary is within its lyrics. 
• Film & The Nation: Since we're fresh off the lesson of Top Gun and Imagined Communities, this one shouldn't be too difficult to draw connections between. For this option, pick a film (obviously not Top Gun) and examine the ways it constructs the idea of the Nation, relying on Anderson's definitions and outlines from his intro. Is the film critical of ideas of the nation? Does the film glorify the Nation, and can it be read as propaganda? Much of what you're considering for this option is how the film constructs the idea of nation, national opposition, and conflict. It's also helpful to consider specifically for this option historical timeframes: was the film released in a Post WWII landscape or during the Cold War? Or was it released pre/post 9/11 and the War on Terror in the early 2000's?

Regardless of what you choose, this paper is a synthesis, meaning your claim is central to how you approach writing about the two keywords. We went over how texts inherently have a thesis and how theses are opposed by their antithesis. Your job, then, is to create your own synthesis between the two keywords, crafting a complex claim of how each keyword informs the other. 

This assignment is centered around Outcome 3: to craft persuasive, complex, inquiry-driven arguments by 

• considering, incorporating, and responding to different view points while developing your own position
• engaging in analysis to support a line of inquiry
• understanding and accounting for the stakes and consequences of various arguments for various audiences
• organizing with respect to demands of the genre, situation, audience, and purpose

Outcome 2 is also in focus: incorporate multiple types of evidence in order to generate and support our writing

• reading, analyzing, and synthesizing a diverse range of texts and understanding the situations in which those texts are participating
• gathering, evaluating, and making purposeful use of sources appropriate for the writing goals, audience, and context
• using reading and observation to craft research questions that explore and respond to complex ideas and situations

Format

• 5 to 6 pages (not counting a Works Cited page)
• 12pt. Times New Roman
• MLA format
• Two to three sources (books/review/video essay/article/etc.) you can bring in to support your claim(s)