Option 3: Conduct a contemporary Issue Analysis

This option requires you to apply the knowledge on issues pertaining to immigration and the immigrant experience you’ve gained over the course of the semester to a contemporary issue/current event of your choice.
First, you will need to select a contemporary issue that deals with issues surrounding immigration or the immigrant experience.
Once you have made your choice, you will need to locate a news article aimed at the public that deals with this topic – whether this article appears in a national or local publication does not matter, it just cannot come from an academic journal or government/non-profit. I recommend picking the source that will given you the most material with which to work! Keep in mind; you are only considering the way this single news article frames that issue, so you are not required to do any additional research on the topic.

Tasks to complete in Your Essay:

After picking your news source, you will need to write a minimum of 5+ page (double-spaced) paper that critically interprets and analyzes this news source.

What viewpoint does the article represent?
Who is if targeting?
What preconceived ideas are embedded in the article?
Why have the events of the article taken place?

Please note – You will want to provide a brief description of your contemporary issue before beginning you interpretation and analysis, but this description should be no more that a paragraph, as details from an about your news source will be included throughout you essay as evidence for your argument. In other words, do not merely summarize the contents but present your own unique and informed analysis of the issues involved. You will use the course materials to inform you analysis of your news source and, while there is no set number of terms or articles I expect you to support you argument (nor do you have to directly quote courses texts if you do not wish to do so), I should see evidence of this throughout your paper.
You will need to conclude your paper with a consideration of ow you believe your news source contributes to the larger discourse surrounding the contemporary issue and, accordingly, what type of political work it does out in the larger culture.

Final Essay Prompt – Option 2 – Curate a YouTube Playlist

For this assignment, you will curate a YouTube playlist specific to a theme or topic related to immigration that we have covered in class. This assignment has two parts: 1) a YouTube playlist and 2) a curator rationale. For instructions on how to create a YouTube playlist, visit: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop&hl=en

Your playlist should be no less than 40 minutes and no more that 60 minutes in length. How you curate this list is up to you, but it should have a clear rational linking the videos together.
You should have at least 4 videos in your playlist, and you cannot include any videos we have screened in class. You will include the URL for your playlist in an appendix to your curator rational essay.

Write a (minimum) 5-page (double-spaced) curator rational essay explaining why you chose the theme or topic that you did and how each video speaks to that theme/topic. You will need to use a minimum of 3 sources to support the argument you develop in your curator rationale. While you are welcome to use as many sources as you wish, 3 of them need to come from our class readings.

Some questions you will want to consider in your curator rationale: What is the intention of each video? (Is it a historical intervention? Does it aim to personalize history or provide a first-person account?) Do these videos problematize conventional narrative of immigration? If so, how and in what ways? How and in what ways do you see these videos in conversation with any of our 324 course readings? (This does not mean that the videos you select have to agree with the arguments put forth in our course readings – although they can. They can also disagree, compliment, etc., our course readings).
Do these videos offer solutions to issues pertaining to your theme/topic? If so, what are the solutions being offered?
How might each video work towards enriching our understanding of your selected theme/topic?