21G.025 | Spring 2019 | Undergraduate

Africa and the Politics of Knowledge

Assignments

Final Project Prospectus Guidelines

The final project is an opportunity for you to build on the material we have covered over the course of the semester and go into greater depth on a topic of interest. In that spirit, your project can take one of three forms (all of the same length: 2500 words, or about 10 pages double-spaced):

  1. Research paper
  2. Speculative fiction
  3. Plan for a political / educational campaign / intervention

In all three cases, the focus of the paper needs to be on the central theme of the class: the production of knowledge about Africa and the negotiation of Africa’s place in the world. In all three cases, your project will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Quality of writing
  • Clarity of argument / statement of problem
  • Pertinence and validity of evidence (option 1) / alternate course of events (option 2) / proposed intervention (for option 3): Does what you offer support your argument / adequately address the problem you pose?
  • Extent to which the project engages with and integrates course materials
  • Structure: Organization, grammar and spelling, citational practices
  • Creativity: Make it interesting!

Research paper

Original research project on a topic of interest. You can pick up on a subject we addressed in class and explore it in greater depth, focusing, for instance, on a particular country, region, or time period. This paper should propose an answer to a research question (your argument), and this argument can be based either on primary (interviews, survey data, archival research, textual / other content analysis) or secondary sources (published academic articles on the topic).

Speculative fiction

A recurring concern in the course has been the question of “Now what?” or a lamentation about how history has seemed to repeat itself. This version of the assignment gives you the possibility of imagining alternate realities / futures. You can either return to a historical event and imagine a different course of events, or pick up in the present moment and imagine the future. As with the other options, I expect you to engage with course themes and readings; you must find a way to incorporate them into your narrative.

Campaign / intervention design

This option is another opportunity for you to explore means of taking action in light of what we have studied. Your campaign / intervention design must include:

  • A justification for the campaign: Why is it necessary? What theoretical perspectives animate it? Are there other examples (historical or contemporary) of similar campaigns?
  • A discussion of how the campaign relates to themes covered in this course: This section should include explicit references to course readings and citations. More than just a bibliography, it should critically engage the content of the readings. It is perfectly OK for you to use some of the analysis you completed for Paper 1 here, if it is applicable.
  • A description of the campaign itself: target population, components of the campaign, intended outcomes

Prospectus Guidelines

The prospectus for your final project should be 1 page long (single-spaced) and include the following information:

  • Project title
  • Project category (of the 3 options above)
  • Project description:
    • Research question / issue your project addresses (be as narrow and specific as possible in your focus)
    • Depending on the type of project, argument your project makes / what it shows or speaks to / what it proposes to intervene on
    • How your project relates to the overall subject of the course and to themes discussed so far
  • For research papers: Proposed research methodology:
    • How will you collect data / gather information for your paper (e.g. literature review, interviews, social media data gathering, etc.)?
    • What data will you collect? (e.g. for interviews, who will you interview, what questions will you be asking?)
    • Timeline for the project (data collection/research, analysis, production)
  • For speculative fiction: Synopsis of the narrative/story pitch
  • For campaign/intervention: Overview of the campaign/intervention, including the various elements listed in the prompt above

Please note that project outlines / first drafts are due during Session 21. You will present your project in class either during Session 24 or Session 25, and the project is due during Session 25.

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2019