Write a 2,500-word essay of scholarly inquiry based on one of the topics below. A successful essay will synthesize the history and analysis of all of the social movements and rebellions covered in class during the current quarter, keeping in mind that to synthesize involves more than simply offering a list. Your essay must take into account the arguments and analyses offered by the authors studied in class, in addition to demonstrating a knowledge of the historical events and their contexts as narrated in the works read by the class.
Those that choose to write on topic #2 should focus your attention on the impact that contemporary social movements have had and continue to have on the forthcoming presidential election (while remembering that elections can also be social movements), or on the history and context of the current presidential impeachment inquiry. Your essay should be based on the considerations outlined in the first paragraph, above, while showing the reader how an understanding of the social rebellions and movements of the past can help us better understand contemporary events.
You are expected to use only professional and scholarly reference material in your paper. Refrain from engaging in author study, journalistic style and presentation, or other forms of writing that divert the readers attention from the work itself. Use of citations and references that consist of urls alone will result in points being deleted from your grade, as will using dictionary.com and other non-professional or non-scholarly sources. Papers are to be presented in 12 pt. type, on white paper, with type on one side of the paper only.
(1) Negotiation and agon in The Commitment to Theory, by Homi K. Bhabha, and the sources, methods, and results of 19th-21st century social movements and rebellions in U.S. society.
OR
(2) Nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century social rebellions and movements in the United States and problems of contemporary political and historical discourse.
