Potential Final project topics: (20%)

The last class periods of the semester will be reserved for class presentations on some application of the ideas or from a concept presented by one of the theorists or specific schools of thought this semester. The presentation should be 8-12 minutes in length, can include an individual presentation or a group of presenters, and can be open to any form of presentation.  The only requirement is that at some point during the presentation that you explicitly discuss the theory or concept that you are using.


This list is not a list of all of the possibilities open to you. It is a list of SOME possibilities that you might use. You are welcome to present on any of these, a variation of any of these, or a completely different topic.  Please use this to give you ideas for your presentation possibilities.

Nietzsche:

What does it mean to have someone follow his/her own life force, a.k.a., "the will to power" and not be held down by the "herd mentality" reflected in laws? Can art be morality? What would it look like?

What is the example of the "uber-man"?

What does it mean to conduct life and culture without established foundations or knowledge?

existentialism:

explore the notion of radical freedom used by existentialism or the human condition. How is the concept of choice/freedom used by existentialists different than the concept used by critical theorists?

Sartre:

Can you show examples of an existential crisis?  

What does it mean to have absolute free choice over one's destiny?

What would collective responsibility look like? Is this concept too broadly expanded in Sartre's view?

Give an example of how the meaning of life is determined by the sum of the choices made.

De Beauvoir:

Give examples of women being viewed as "Other". Counter this idea with alternative examples of non-patriarchy.

Give examples of women who are all choosing to explore different paths, i.e, the surrogate male, the ultra-female, the organizer who seeks to mobilize group change.

Give examples of the gendered nature of the society that DeBeauvoir argues we live in, i.e., rationality is associated with male, emotion is associated with female, etc.

Critical Theory:

Each of the theorists argues that the class structure which exploits especially the working class is held in place by lots of different institutions in society that keep the masses from recognizing that they are being exploited and from acting in their own interests.  Give examples comparing the way in which populations are kept apolitical from Marcuse, Adorno & Horkheimer, and  Habermas.

Marcuse:

Give contemporary examples of what he means when he uses the term "One dimensional man".

Give examples of what rebellion against the "machine" would look like. Also, explore the use of  Marcuse by the student "tune out" movement of the 1960's and 1970's as an example of 'negation'..

Give examples of the Freudian parallels between the human psyche and society. Do you think it is a valid analogy?

Show how Marcuse's assertion that the human drives for sex and violence are sublimated through different channels.

What would "negation" look like?

Adorno & Horkheimer:

Show how popular culture keeps the masses passive. Show how "high art" can present the possibility of an alternative world.

Critique their idea that popular culture can never be emancipatory. Use film, music, tv clips, etc. to make your point.

Are they right about the "brain-numbing" effect and repetition of popular culture? Give examples.

How have potentially political cultural forms (like hiphop) been commercialized till they lose their political edge? What would it look like if it didn't?

Is advertising and mass persuasion behind every political campaign? Do candidates become commodified? Give examples.

What would "agitprop" look like?

Is their distinction between high art and popular culture right? Why or why not?

Habermas:

What would the "ideal speech" situation look like? Give examples of free and open discourse and/or examples of constrained and manipulated conversations.

Give an example of how intersubjectivity and communicative reason could open up a conversation run by instrumental rationality (machine logic)?

Foucault

Discourse Analysis

Give an example of how a social problem is created and/or transformed by looking at it in a different discourse. One example, mentioned in lecture, was the change from looking at drug addiction as a medical problem to looking at it as an example of  criminal behavior. How does this transformation show the arbitrariness of how we define social issues?

Give an example of Foucault's assertion that social control operates by defining some people or behaviors as "normal" and others as "deviant".

Give an example of the way in which  people now police and conduct surveillance on  themselves and others and the very subtle ways in which social control operates.

Give an example of  effective resistance  or reverse discourse, according to Foucault..

Foucault asserts that social change or resistance happens on the margins, the boundaries, and that a new 'space' can be opened up by transgressions or subverting the normal. Give an example of this.

post-colonial theory

Compare Fanon with DeLoria in terms of  what they see as the responsibility of the colonized towards the colonizer and what tactics are most appropriate or justified to change power relations between them.

Expand on DeBeauvoir's idea of the "Other" as it is used to define the colonized in post-colonial theory.

Fanon

Fanon describes the  internalization of the colonial value system as one of the ways in which all colonized peoples feel themselves to be inferior, as they look at themselves through the eyes of the colonizers. Give an example of this.

Give an example of Fanon's justification of  violence against colonizers as one way to break down the categories of "white" and "black".

Give an example of Fanon's assertion that anyone who rebels against the colonizer is defined as "deviant" or mentally ill.

Explain modern terrorism in Fanon's terms.

DeLoria Jr.

Give an example of the indigenous relationship with the earth compared to how the colonizer relates to the earth, according to DeLoria.

Give an example of the type of resistance that DeLoria argues is necessary and most effective in dealing with European culture and global capitalism.

Give an example of  one of the "scientific" discourses that DeLoria argues are used to maintain the current power structure, contrasted with the traditional knowledge of the indigenous perspective.

Explain how it is possible to speak two languages, that of the indigenous culture and that of the colonizer, and explain why deLoria sees it as necessary to protect indigenous cultures.

Haraway:

Give an example of the merging of machine and human or the merging of animal and human, or the merging of male and female.

What does social organizing look like when we use a biological model?

how could you apply chaos theory to political issues?

Give an example of the positive impact of technology and how it has altered human social and political life. Give an example of the negative impact of technology.

Compare Haraway's view of technology with DeLoria's view of technology from a traditional, indigenous perspective.

Compare Haraway's version of feminism and the relations between the sexes with deBeauvoir's. Give an example of the differences and why they are different.

Rheingold:

Give an example of the democratic possibilities of the digital world.

Give examples of the collaboration possible in an internetted world vs conflict.

Give examples of what happens in a world when humans communicate and connect virtually rather than through face-to-face contact.

Be able to explain how virtual civil society can make national borders obsolete or irrelevant. Give an example.

Show some problems with the virtual world that Rheingold doesn't account for.