Final Paper: Imagining the Other

FINAL COURSE ASSIGNMENT HANDOUT
CORE 105-037 Imagining the “Other”
A Complex Problems Seminar, taken in the fall or spring of your first year at American
University, is designed around real-world problems or enduring questions to cultivate your
intellectual flexibility for future work at the university and beyond.
The topic of our Complex Problems seminar, Imagining the “Other” is one such enduring
question or, more precisely, an examination of the process of construction of the “other’ over a
specific time frame.
In our case, this time frame is historically defined as late 1500s / early 1600s – present. This
means that there is a clearly defined timeline or historical context, that explains this
construction of the “other” and the social, political, and other responses to it.
Our course syllabus offers additional description of the nature of the course and my learning
expectations:
“Grounded in a thorough examination of the various theories of society, such as social
Darwinism, and designed around a comparative and multidisciplinary set of scholarly works and
literary writings, this course explores the colonial, postcolonial, and imperial interactions
between the West and the rest of the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It
looks at the ways the perception of differences informs reality and conditions the imagining and
the construction of the racial, ethnic, and national other.
On a more fundamental level, the course questions the meaning of modernity and its civilizing
processes steeped in the common myth of progress and betterment of itself through
rationalization and institutionalization.
The comparative and multidisciplinary design of the course aims at helping the students
develop a more nuanced and complementary way of studying the subject, and by doing so, it
exposes them to new ways of critical thinking.” [source: your syllabus]
Your final written assignment (final project, which also serves as your final exam) asks that you
reflect on what you learned in this course through the context outlined above. In order to do
so, you must trace the “complexity” of the course theme as it manifests itself over time. You
also must anchor this complexity in specific historical context. Lastly, you must critically reflect
on the course theme and your understanding of its relevance to todays’ world.
Paper Length: 6 pages. No need to include citations. The assignment should be
written like a basic reflective paper.
Note: We need to come up with a complex problem based on the description of the course and the readings for the course. And write a paper base on the problem. The paper must contain the content and ideas of adas1,2 and Augstein articles. You can come up with the topic (complex problem) based on these two articles and the course description. Especially the adas. Other readings also need to be mentioned in the article, but do not needs to mention all of them. I wrote most of the reading feedback, which named reflection 1-6 you can get in and use it in the essay.
The teacher asked for the first four pages of the essay to write how those reading materials show the essay's topic and suit the class topic (the class name). how it shows imagining the others. The remaining two pages of paper can write your own ideas about the subject of the article, such as how this complex problem will develop in the future and how to reflect the imaging the others.
If we have some questions, please tell me, and I ask my professor. This essay is very important to me, which account for 30% grade. Please help me to write it well. Thank you so much for your help!