Project 1 Assignment Sheet:

Research Proposal
For your autoethnography projects, we will be looking at ways of conducting
research, both through active engagement (observation, interviews) and through
academic engagement (finding sources, conducting research). Therefore, you are
looking to find a discourse community that you can both interact with personally
and research academically. Through this project, you will deeply engage with this
community, looking at it through multiple lenses. Part of this project is also to
understand the ways in which rhetoric is used not only through written text, but
through visual forms such as film and photography. This semester-long project will
teach you how to conduct research, engage in communities, and represent your
ideas through both written text and visual mediums. This first stage of your project
involves deciding on a topic and defending that topic.
Due: January 25
Assignment:
Write a proposal for your intended topic. What do you plan to research?
What questions do you have about the topic that will guide your inquiry?
How will you begin researching this topic? What about the topic interests
you? How does it fall into the category of an autoethnography? Look for
topics that are specific. If you have any difficulty selecting a topic, please
meet with me during office hours or send me an email.
Guidelines:
Times New Roman 11 or 12 point font, 1 inch margins
4 pages in length
No spaces between paragraphs
Invention Portfolio:
An invention portfolio is due with the submission of this proposal. In this
portfolio, you will include three assignments that you completed during this
unit. These should be the three assignments that were the most valuable to
you. This can be defined in whatever way feels right. They could have led
you to a better understanding of certain concepts, an altered perspective of
different communities, or just a general intellectual growth.
Note: Please do not throw away any of the work that you do in this course.
We will complete various portfolios throughout the semester that will
require a revisiting of past assignments.
Relevant Readings and Films:
Manakamana (2013) Directed by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez from
The Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab
The Iron Ministry (2014) Directed by J. P. Sniadecki from The Harvard
Sensory Ethnography Lab
Peoples Park (2012) Directed by J.P. Sniadecki and Libbie Dina Cohn from
The Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab
NomadsLife by Jeroen Toirkens (Ongoing)

Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context by Seth Kahn in Writing Spaces

Grade Breakdown:
Unit 1: 10%
o Project 1: 7%
o Invention Portfolio: 2%
o Participation: 1%
The University Writing Center
You will receive two points of extra credit on your paper if you take it to the
University Writing Center. Make sure to get a form from your consultant to
prove that you went.