Manifesta project essay

• Deadlines:  Prospectus December 8, final project December 20 during our exam period (2:00-4:50 PM)

• Length:  1500-1800 words for a written project; 1000-1200 word essay to accompany visual projects  (There is no penalty for going over this length, but a much shorter essay may result in a failing grade.)

• Before you start:  review these evaluation criteria. 

• Other possibly  useful stuff:  whammo conclusions    guidelines for using "I"     voice     academic integrity

AND SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: send your manifesta to the e-zine TheFWord! http://www.thef-wordzine.com/mainsubmit.html The deadline is January 15. Here's their call for papers:

We Don't Need Another Wave:  Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists is seeking essays and personal narratives that discuss the ways in which today's younger feminists are using activism to combat various forms of oppression.  Topics may include the intersectionality of identity, women in the military, body image, and the institution of marriage.  Email Melody Berger at HowlingHarpies@gmail.com for more information.

The purpose of this assignment is to create a statement that can work as a bridge between your explorations of theory and your REAL LIFE--your lived experience of choices and intentions, your activism, your vision of where you're going from here, and the daily ways that you represent "feminism" to people who may or may not share your commitments. 

We'll pool all of these individual statements to create a collective public statement during finals week. 

Themes

Here are three ways to think about what the essay or visual project should be about.  (They're all different angles on the same thing--use the one that works best for you.)

1.  Create a manifesta.  Here are some definitions of manifestos.  Check out Baumgardner and Richards's "Third Wave Manifesta" (on SOCS) for an example.

 

2.  Create an expression of your convictions and commitments as a feminist.  Take a stand.  Focus as much as you can on specific issues. 

 

3.  Describe where feminism is now, and where it needs to go in the twenty-first century. 

And here's another way to think about the intent of the assignment.  See if you can address Cheryl's question from mid-semester reflections (Fall '04):

I feel I've been opened up to struggles I was completely blind to before and now I'm a bit more confused.  I want to know what to say to people when they ask me "what do you do as a feminist?  What are your goals?  Do you just bash men all the time?"

Requirements

Your manifesta can be as creative as Adrienne Rich's or Gloria Anzaldua's or Trinh Minh-Ha's writing, it can speak as plainly as Bernice Johnson Reagon or Mary or the Riot Grrls, it can be as personal as Suheir Hamad's or Donna Rushin's or Mitsuye Yamada's writing, or as learned as Donna Haraway's or Spike Peterson's essays.  The central requirement is that it be grounded in theoretical depth.

Here's how to do that: 

* Review "Not By Degrees:  Feminist Theory and Education" (on SOCS, assigned during the first week).  In this essay, Charlotte Bunch offers a model for theory that includes for components:

1.  Description:  Describing what exists

2.  Analysis:  Analyzing why that reality exists

3.  Vision:  Determining what should exist

4.  Strategy:  Hypothesizing how to change what is to what should be

* Choose as your central source at least one of the readings from the third unit of the course (weeks 12-15).  Each of these essays can add richness and depth to our understanding of one or more of the components of theory that Bunch describes. 

* You may also use any of the following as optional sources (they're not required):

1.  Any of the other readings from any time in the semester

2.  Your Adopt-A-Book

3.  A recent activist event in which you participated

4.  Appropriate outside sources if they help to ground your manifesta

Formats