Archiving Using the Chosen Keywords

Specific instructions can be found in the "Instruction" document.
I have specifically listed the requirements. What I required is only to find few citations from readings I provide, no need to read them all

Part One: Archive (500 words)

For the first portion of the project, you will archive usages of a particular keyword of your choice. (It basically asks you to find possible citations for writing the essay) The keyword you archive should be one that is not included in the Keywords for American Cultural Studies book, but is a term that you think should be included in the text. Archiving can involve simply copying or typing out every sentence you read that uses your keyword. The archive need not be completely textual; it can also involve images and sound, conversations overheard on the street, or exchanges on a bus. Your archive should include citations when possible. This archive is essentially a collection of found objects for which you are being asked to keep a usage log in which you’ll record the textual, audible, visual, spatial, and/or temporal location of a specific use of the term.

Your archive should include “found objects” from ten sources (with author, page number, title of piece referenced when possible):

1. Connections to three sources found in the Supplemental Readings. For these sources, ask yourself if the source provides important information about the definition or uses of your keyword and how.

2. Connections to three assigned readings in the course. This may include the documentaries 13th, I Am Not Your Negro.

3. Connections to two Keyword essays found in the table of contents of Keywords for American Cultural Studies to your chosen keyword.

4. Connections to two encounters outside of class that remind you of your keyword. This may include any other materials from other courses you’re taking, portions of conversations that you have encountered on or off-campus or via social media, in movies, tv shows, podcasts, etc. (a screenshot is acceptable).

Your archive should also include small portions of reflection on those sources that essentially annotate them to draw explicit connections to your chosen keyword. Basically, you’re making sure that when you return to those found objects you know why you’ve included them. Connect each source to your keyword (50 words each); these connections can include:

a. Examples,

b. Brief analyses that address the “so what” of the source (why is it significant?),

c. Or, simply a short reflection on why/how it connects.

(Since you need to copy texts or add screenshot to create archive, this part will exceed two page lengths, but you only need to write about 500 words so I paid for 2 pages price)

Part Two: Essay (4 full pages)

Once you have constructed this archive of usages, you should draw on that archive to tell a story about your chosen keyword. You should use the essays we’ve read in the text Keywords for American Cultural Studies as examples. From reading essays in Keywords for American Cultural Studies, you should already know that it is rarely possible to produce a linear narrative about a complex term; so, don’t feel pressured to create a genealogy of the term. Instead, using skills you’ve developed in and outside of class, centering your chosen keyword, you will be asked to demonstrate what you’ve learned during the semester in this course and in the making of your keyword archive. In a 4 pages double spaced essay, you should attempt to make sense of the array of materials that use different vocabularies and methodologies, which you have already collected in your archive. The effort to bring together the varying usages of a single keyword should make the content of your archive and any connections you draw to the knowledge you learned in this course clearer and more coherent. Use the following questions to guide your reflection, summary, and analysis of the works in your archive to create a definition essay for your chosen keyword:

a. What are the definitions and usages of your keyword? Where and how have you encountered this keyword?

b. What are the critical genealogies of the term, and how do these genealogies affect its use today? How can you trace these historical usages?

c. What kinds of critical projects does your keyword enable? What critical conversations can you connect to this keyword and why?

d. Are there ways of thinking that are occluded or obstructed by the use of this term? How so?

e. What other keywords constellate around it? How, when, and why are those connections made clear?

f. Why would we take time to study or discuss your chosen keyword in a course like ours? What conversations would your keyword add and why?

This paper should include the following components:

- Topic focus: identification and articulation of your chosen keyword and a clear thesis statement/main argument about why the term is significant to American Studies;

- Depth of Discussion and Analysis: a brief analysis of your chosen keyword informed by your research by answering the question “why is it significant?” and the questions above.

- Integration of Knowledge and Cohesiveness: Provide clear, specific, and relevant descriptions of related engagement with the sources referenced in your archive (at least five should be referenced).

- Correct Works Cited/Bibliography/Reference Page of at least five sources.

Part Three: Direct reflection (2 pages)

Write 2 pages reflection in response to three questions that ask you to consider the research and writing process, and your learning processes throughout this course. This short reflection will provide you an opportunity to present your argument for what grade you have earned on this project and why, using concrete evidence. Answer each question with a 170-200 word short answer response:

1. This course explores the construction of “America” as a social, cultural, political, economic, and geographic process fraught in both past and present with complications, contradictions, and contestations. We have discussed how such experiences continue to shape present thinking and future possibilities and have navigated stories of “American” land and people by considering and analyzing the many ways in which the American landscape and identity converge and intersect. Reflecting on your writing and learning process for the capstone project portfolio, how did your close reading, synthesis, and analysis of your primary source, and your related research questions/topic, draw connections between geography, people, and power? Why do these stories and histories continue to be important topics to consider?

2. What were some of the most interesting or impactful topics and/or conversations we engaged in this course throughout the semester, and why? What were the most challenging concepts for you, and how did you navigate your learning of these topics?

3. Reflecting on your thinking, learning, and work in this course, what are you most proud of, or what brought you the most satisfaction, and why? What were the strategies, skills, and procedures you successfully and/or unsuccessfully used in your thinking, learning, and other work in this course? What did you struggle with, or what might you have done differently and why?