SECTION I: UNDERSTANDING IDENTITY: INTERSECTIONS & COMBINATIONS OF GENDER, RACE & SEXUALITY

Assignments
Paper #1: Understanding Identity

PROMPT AVAILABLE: Monday September 18th
FIRST VERSION DUE: Friday September 29th
PAPER DUE: Friday October 6th (via Moodle by 12:00pm)

In a typed, double-spaced 3-4 page (800-1200 word) essay respond to the following questions:

Which aspect of your identity (i.e. race or gender or something else) is the most salient to you and why? (How) is your answer to this question affected by hybridity (when identity characteristics are not discrete) and intersectionality (when identity characteristics are imbricated)? Your paper should involve a critical examination of a selection of the concepts we have been discussing in this section of the class (social constructions of gender, sex, sexuality and race, intersectionality, mestiza consciousness, et cetera). Please be sure to contextualize the intersections of your particular cultural, ethnic, economic, national and/or sexual make-up in relation to how these constituencies (race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nationality) inform the ways you identify (and/or are identified).

REMINDERS & INSTRUCTIONS
0) YOUR NAME SHOULD APPEAR NOWHERE ON YOUR PAPER UNTIL THE BACK OF THE VERY LAST PAGE (AFTER YOUR WORKS CITED PAGE).
1) NO LATE PAPERS OR ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.
2) YOUR PAPER SHOULD BE DOUBLE SPACED, IN 12 POINT FONT WITH 1-INCH MARGINS.
3) YOUR PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE A THESIS STATEMENT (IN BOLD FONT) WHICH DEMONSTRATES A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CONCEPTS REFERENCED ABOVE.
4) YOUR PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE A "WORKS CITED" PAGE OF ANY ARTICLES YOU REFERENCE IN YOUR ESSAY. YOU MAY USE MLA OR APA CITATION STYLE.
5) A SUCCESSFUL PAPER WILL REFERENCE AT LEAST TWO OF THE READINGS THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THIS SECTION OF THE COURSE.