Final Project Assignment

Posted: Sun, Nov 24, 2024

Please choose one of the following options for your final project.

Cheers to Love

Length: 1,200 to 2,000 words.

Assignment: Offer your own encomium to Love as an additional symposiast at Agathon’s.

You may choose when it is your turn to speak during the course of the night, but you must make this explicit by starting your speech with a direct response to the previous symposiast.
Please be sure to include a few sentences explaining the backstory of your character (who are you and what’s your deal?), though these need not constitute part of the speech itself.

Love at the Right Swipe

Length: 1,200 to 2,000 words.

Assignment: Analyze carefully and critically the ways in which sex, gender, and love are constructed in a dating app of your choice.

Pay special attention to how the app approaches gender and sexual orientation, how it designs and presents profiles, and how its matching system works.
I would like you to draw on not only your own experiences using the app but also the experiences of three to five of your friends, colleagues, or other acquaintances. To do so, you should conduct short interviews (~15 minutes, unless something really interesting comes up) with each of them. Draft three to five questions beforehand, but don’t be afraid to ask follow-ups. Be smart about whom you decide to interview, think about how to make them feel comfortable in a way that would encourage openness, and try to have actual, open-ended conversations rather than rigid, structured Q&A’s.
Be sure to include a critical reflection on the kind(s) of sex, gender, and love that the dating app in your view steers its users toward.
Be sure also to engage with concepts, ideas, and/or views from the class.

Real Talk

Length: 800 to 1,500 words.

Assignment: Draft a newspaper opinion piece defending your view on a current issue directly relevant to our course.

Your aim is to persuade your audience of a single point in a snappy, accessible manner.
Your argument should engage with concepts, ideas, and/or views from the class.
Op-eds are typically very short but highly polished. Think carefully about your audience, title, thesis, structure, opening, and ending. Try to make sure that every paragraph/sentence/word in some way contributes to your overall argument.

The following are some models representing a diverse range of styles, formats, and lengths.

Rowan Bell, “Gender Together: Identity, Community, and the Politics of Sincerity,” APA Blog, January 11, 2023.
Carrie Jenkins, “What’s Love Got to Do with Sex Ed? Maybe Everything,” The Globe and Mail, May 15, 2015.
Kate Kirkpatrick, “Love is a Joint Project,” Aeon, January 30, 2020.
Sophie Lewis, “Escape from Love Island,” London Review of Books, January 20, 2023.
Sophie Lewis, “The Case for Abolishing the Family,” Institute of Art and Ideas, October 14, 2022.
Amia Srinivasan, “Who Lost the Sex Wars?” New Yorker, September 6, 2021.
Kate Manne, “Women Can Have a Little Power, as a Treat,” New York Times, July 28, 2020.
Alexandra Petri, “Save Us from Women’s Shoulders, Missouri State Legislature!” Washington Post, January 13, 2023.
Julia Serano, “What I Learned about Street Harassment after I Transitioned,” Guardian, May 16, 2022.
Chase Strangio, “Trans Visibility Is Nice. Safety Is Even Better.” New York Times, February 15, 2024.

Wild Card

Assignment: With instructor permission, you may also decide to write a research paper or pursue another creative project (a zine, a play, a board game, a short story, a video essay, a mini-album, a podcast episode, an exhibit, a website or an application, a reenactment, an alternative history, etc.). You must discuss your wild card idea with me by Tuesday, December 3.