FINAL PAPER PROPOSAL(Architectural history). ARC/END 321: Race and Place in the Built Environment

FINAL PAPER PROPOSAL

Assignment: Write a brief description of the research topic you will pursue for your final paper. As a rule of thumb, it is best to move from a general description of your topic to the specific research question you will explore.

Each description should include the following information:
The general topic or concept your paper will investigate
The specific research question you will ask of this general material
The specific architectural case study you will use to investigate your research question
Begin by thinking about what general topic you are interested in studying:
What topic in the course syllabus seems most interesting to you? Why?
What is the role of this topic in the historical progression of modern architecture?
When you write about your general topic, try to be as comprehensive as possible (i.e. assume your reader doesn’t know anything about the subject).

After identifying a general topic, pose a specific question that examines a specific aspect of this topic in closer detail. It is best if your question is narrow enough to eliminate an excessive amount of background reading, but not too narrow that it requires the discovery of original archives.
As an example, you may wish to explore the concept of the Primitive in Modern Architecture. A good research question might be:
‘What role did the primitive play in the development of colonial architecture in French Morocco?’
This question interrogates the specific role of the topic (Primitivism) in a discreet geographical region (French Morocco) and time period (colonialism), but it does not get so specific that it requires you to translate original French documents.

Next, you should identify one architectural case study that will enable you to empirically investigate your research question. This example can be of a building, an infrastructural project, a historical document (such as a text, treatise, manifesto), or some other aspect of material culture related to modern architecture. Some examples for the topic of the Primitive in French colonies might be:
‘The North African Influences of Albert Laprade’s Palais de la Porte Dorée (c.1931)’
‘The class distinctions planned by the elevated highway of Le Corbusier’s Plan Obus (c.1933)’
‘The visual representation of difference in Moroccan postcards between 1920-1930’
Finally, you must make sure that there is enough primary and secondary literature available on your topic in the library. Otherwise, you will be asked to change your case study so that you don’t waste time looking for archives that don’t exist. In this spirit, you should create a bibliography of 5-6 peer-reviewed references and write 1-2 sentences on what you think you will learn from each source. As an example, a bibliography for the sample topic shown above might include:
1-2 books on the architect or building
1-2 books with background on French Morocco
1-2 books on Primitivism as a general concept
Grading: Your paper will be graded out of 25 points according to the following rubric:
Central theme clear and understandable (5 points)
Central theme accounts for cultural context beyond technological innovation (5 points)
Case study within the time frame of the class (5 points)
Bibliography of at least 5-6 peer-reviewed sources (5 points)
Bibliography sources all relevant to subject (as demonstrated by annotations) (5 points)
Format: 1 to 1-½ pages of double spaced text, 12-point font, 250 – 500 words, must cite and annotate 5-6 peer-reviewed sources, all references must be formatted in the Chicago style.

Due: Friday, September 28 (upload onto UBLearns)