Cultural Geography in the US

Guidelines: Final Paper & Proposal

Final Paper Prompt:

One of the ways that we see culture is through cultural objects. As we have been learning, cultural objects reflect broader social, political, historical, and economic relationships; to understand culture, and cultural objects, is to understand how culture and its objects reflect the relationships of their creation. For your final paper, write a 5-page paper in which you document, describe, and analyze a cultural object. In your analysis, use at least three sources from this semester (readings and/or lecture notes). Discuss how the object you chose reflects a set of relationships that help us say something meaningful about culture in the United States.

Your paper should follow the format we have used for our writing assignments this semester. Your first paragraph should introduce your cultural object, discuss your analysis, and state what your analysis demonstrates. Your subsequent paragraphs should serve to ‘prove’ what you stated in your introductory paragraph. Write your paper as if someone has not seen the object you are describing. What details do you need to add to your description to ‘paint’ a picture of the object? Of course, your job is not just to document and describe, but also to analyze. In your analysis, use course materials to help state why the object matters, and how it helps us say something meaningful about culture in the United States.