compares RACIALIZING MIGRANTS and FOODIE CULTURES with a global studies approach and current events Cite readings/lectures appropriately. You can cite things from outside course but focus on the source that i gave you.
It asks you to consider a global studies perspective (you do not have to be a major to think globally). A problem with much of today’s media or educational knowledge it is either nationalist/parochial or universalist/abstract. A global perspective considers that things are happening elsewhere in the world, but also HOW and WHY it happens. Knowing that Black Lives Matters is relevant to Italy is not enough, but showing its links to the US or global racism will tell us the ways BLM works. So doing global and international studies means just thinking hard about phenomenon globally. Same things with landfills. If you can tell us how landfills rich cites like Los Angeles from rich countries impact poor countries, we might understand the city-country dynamic better (rather than country to country). All of this is global studies thinking.
The essay suggests you can cite outside, but the goal is not to focus on something outside, but the themes we have covered. It is very easy to do something you already know or are familiar with. Discussing topics you might not know too much (like Uranium mining in the Navajo nation) will force you out of your comfort zone. Please focus on themes i gave you.
Finally, I gave you these things to consider when writing on the syllabus:
Identities/Commodities/Structures/Institutions/Representations/Discourses/Systems/Ideas/Knowledge/Economy/Politics/Governance/History/Labor/Imaginaries/Experiences/Education etc.
For the essay writing itself, a main goal is to think about the “middle” part of your intellectual sandwich. Often, students do a compare and contrast and there is nothing holding their links together. It is too generic. You have specific examples and everyday cases and you have big ideas or structural processes, but what happens in the middle?
For example, if you do sovereign debt and energy consumption, you might focus on institutions like the government. If the whole essay focuses on the subtheme of “governance,” then you have a more powerful essay that forces you to not speak in generalities. You could be even less obvious and think about identity or labor, which the two speakers on those topics did not talk so much about. If you can pull that off successful, you have a truly unique paper that stands out. The goal is to produce a unique generative exciting paper!
