F- Creative Project

The Creative Project is a way for you to think about the implications of a central idea or specific class text(s) and represent its significance to you, to other individuals, or to a larger community, and address the central question of this course: What does it mean to be an American?

You can focus upon one or two of the central ideals listed on the syllabus (democracy, freedom, individuality, opportunity, or equality), or another ideal that you think is significant. Alternatively, you can use the larger topics used to structure the class (the ways that race/ethnicity, class, or intersectionality influence the experience of being American, or the tensions between values of individualism and collectivism). You will select 1-3 specific texts assigned for class (articles, videos, or a combination) that help you make some point about the importance of the key ideals or topics. Keep in mind that although overlap between ideas is normal, you should try to define specific central issues.

Your creative work will be accompanied by a 2-page analysis in which you use a few critical passages from the class texts you choose to discuss the implications of your work and the choices you’ve made in creating it. The analysis should make a claim about your piece based on the textual passages and discuss how your creative piece engages with specific concepts.

You are welcome to develop the creative response to the material you feel is effective as well as creatively and intellectually appropriate. Some examples / suggestions to get you thinking:

Create a drawing or painting
This is your chance to explore your creativity, but also to think about how creative work can be seen as “arguments” of a different kind. Purely factual interviews, posters, Powerpoints, Prezis, and other presentation-type projects will not be accepted.
Your written analysis should address the following questions: What does this project mean to you in relation to this class? In what ways does this project reflect ideas arising out of the assigned texts? How does it help you articulate some idea of American identity? The creative work and analysis together should present and support a clear claim about the significance of some key ideal or concept in light of what it means to be American.

The creative project will not be graded on your artistic skill, but on your ability to articulate, develop, and support a central claim about the significance of your chosen focus to American identity. The analysis will be graded as a written argument, and must clearly cite specific passages and explain the ways that your creative work links to the class texts.

You’ll turn in a proposal first, for which I’ll provide feedback, and you are very welcome to meet with me at any stage as you formulate ideas and work on this project.