The final paper is an 8-10 page paper (excluding title page if you choose to add one, though not necessary, and reference page) focusing on a specific aspect of a social movement. In this assignment, you will have the opportunity to research how groups have worked to confront and transform oppression through social movements and progressive activism. The paper involves connecting our course materials and discussions to outside materials in order to make an informed analysis about how and why forms of oppression have been challenged and how social gains have been made through collective movements.
In this paper, you will need to demonstrate all of the following:
An understanding of the systemic and institutional nature of oppression;
An understanding of the histories and issues of social identities/social locations of the dominant and subordinate groups that are involved in a form of oppression;
An historical analysis of how and why the social movement emerged;
An understanding of how at least one theoretical social movement concept applies to your chosen social movement (such as framing, resource mobilization, emotions, collective identity formation);
An understanding of the activities of the social movement, its participants, visions/goals, and strategies/tactics;
An understanding of whether the social movement addressed more than one form of oppression, and if so, how the movement saw the connections between the forms of oppression. If the movement only addressed one form of oppression, what is your analysis of why this happened;
An understanding of what the social movement achieved specifically and what still has yet to be achieved regarding the ending of oppression
For this project, you should use course readings and outside sources (books, articles, or videos) to frame your analysis of the overarching institutional dynamics of the form(s) of oppression that the movement addresses/addressed, and to place in historical context and analyze the social movement that you are working with. You need 6 sources at minimum (though can reasonably use 10-12 sources and at least 3 of these must be peer-reviewed journal articles.