SBS 301 Cultural Diversity/Prof. Kristin Koptiuch, ASU

PERSONAL MEMORY ETHNOGRAPHY PROJECT

Think of this five-part project as a kind of archaeology of knowledge, a sort of fieldwork conducted in "the field" of your memory. You will receive instructions for only one part of the assignment at a time, so what comes next will be a surprise!

(only the first assignment is here on the web--the rest will be given out in class)

The purpose is not to test you on your memory or pry into your personal life, but to highlight the relevance of a critical understanding of cultural diversity and difference to your own experience. The point is to carefully consider an episode from your own life in a manner similar to the way an ethnographer, through participant-observation, would "read" or interpret the everyday world of others. In this case, you are the ethnographer and you are the Other.

Remember, write clearly, concisely, imaginatively.

Your life isn't boring--don't let your writing be boring!

Papers will be critiqued for clarity, spelling (use that spell-check!), grammar, rhetorical effectiveness, persuasiveness. Think speculatively, write with care. PROOF READ BEFORE TURNING IN!!

Note: at the end of the project, we will post everyone's final writing (PME #5) on internet web pages linked to the course web page. You may wish to keep this in mind as you imagine an audience for your piece, and develop a "voice" directed towards that audience (i.e. don’t just write for Dr. K). 

PLEASE TYPE (double spaced)


PME #1. FIRST-PERSON PREWRITE (2 pages only) Describe briefly and concisely an outstanding incident from your own past experience through which you learned about "difference."  Please stick to one of the types of socially constructed difference we target in this course, defined by the "borderlands" of race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and/or (trans)nation. 

Choose an incident in which you were a participant (i.e. not just something you heard or read about). Describe it as best you remember it. Stick to the concrete, specific incident itself. Try to pick an incident that still remains emotionally important to you for some reason (eye-opener, disturbing, enigma, anger, discovery, pleasure, conflict, recognition of inequality, discrimination, or privilege, etc.). You should write this piece in first-person (i.e. I remember, I did, I felt, my family...).



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