PAPER 1 – system of law – see attached image for guidelines, 1500 words
MINI ETHNOGRAPHY (DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS)
To collect qualitative data, you must interview at least three people who live or work in your neighborhood who are willing to express their opinions about the cultural/social/economic changes happened in your neighborhood during the last ten/fifteen/twenty years. You may interview just about anyone in the neighborhood about this topic (that is, how your neighborhood changed from every viewpoint), including next-door neighbors, your friendly neighbor the Spiderman, family members, postal workers, grocery store clerks, the gossipy old lady out her window all day, your local beat cop, school crossing guards, local officials, and so on. Your task, then, is to collect information from them and present their point of view, accompanied by your analysis. (Note: while you are free to interview anyone from your neighborhood, writing up findings from the qualitative interviews is often easier when the people that you have interviewed do not share the same opinions about these topics). In writing about the people that you interviewed for your paper, you must use pseudonyms, that is, you may not use people’s real names or describe them in such a way that anyone who reads your paper will be able to identify them. Even if you interview someone in a unique and identifiable role, such as the borough president, or the captain of your police precinct, or your mother, and it would be virtually impossible to completely disguise his or her identity, you should still assign a fake name for this project.
Collecting Observational Data:
Since this is a paper about your neighborhood, your own observations of local conditions and your observations about the people that you interviewed for the research are important sources of data that will help readers better understand the quantitative and qualitative data you collect.
Your relationship with the interviewed person (family/friend/coworker/neighbor/stranger) may help indicate the depth or shallowness of the rapport you may share, and help you judge the reliability and validity of the collected data. Your own observations should be used to write a description of your neighborhood that will help the reader understand the attitudes, orientations and opinions expressed by the people that you interview for the study. But the paper cannot be primarily autobiographical in nature.
The paper will be basically based on semi-structured interviews (or open-ended) questions, which ask respondents to answer in their own words. Simply stated, semi structured questions ask “what?”, “why?” and “how” (For example: how did my neighborhood change economically? Did it get richer, poorer etc.). Semi structured questioning allows participants to express their point of view and to describe situations, events and their experiences and are especially valuable when little is known about the issue under investigation. You can tape-record the interview if you wish (well, it’s recommended). Your final work will be a 2,500-word paper to deliver by May 20.
About Covid-19: due to the current crisis, you can make the interviews by phone, and choose friends and family members. The actual purpose of this mini-ethnography is to have you do some anthropological work, to gather some fieldwork experience.
Assignment
Final Assignment
PAPER 2 – 2000 words
Here you have your final questions. Five questions, minimum 500 words each. I do not know what kind of files Blackboard accepts, but you should use ONLY .doc and pdf, so please use them and AVOID any other kind of files.
To answer the questions, use your text. Read the parts that you need, and then answer using your own words. Do not copy the whole questions on your document; just write their number (Question number 1 etc.). Of course you can use whatever you wrote in the Discussion Boards. Just DO NOT COPY the writings of other classmates: this would be plagiarism.
The not-so-hidden purpose of this assignment is to help you guys to reinforce what you have learned so far. If you need to quote from the texts, make sure you put them between commas: “” .Then put the details (author of the statement, source, page) between parentheses (), right after the quote. A quote can make up no more than 15% of your answer. Cheating is a very serious matter. Plus keep in mind that I consider cheating also copying your answers from your classmates. If I see two assignments that look alike, I will have to fail both.
In answering every question, start with a quotation from the text, and build your answer on it. You should elaborate a little bit, summarizing what you read on the materials. So: more or less 350 words should be devoted to summarizing the content of your textbook, while 150 should be used to state your opinion about the topic. One way to do that could be using one of the following questions: What were your thoughts on the subject before reading and how have they changed? What conclusions can be drawn from the reading? Of course 500 (350 + 150) words is the minimum; feel free to go beyond that minimum, if you need it. Deliver your assignment on time, uploading it on Blackboard. No assignments will be accepted after May 20 at midnight.
DON’T MAKE ME CHASE YOU. It is your responsibility to upload your assignments ON TIME and to MAKE SURE that the whole file is there (sometimes Blackboard cuts off parts of the assignment, so make sure it is complete; I will grade what I find, no matter what).
Here you have the questions (all based on the texts):
Describe the genocide in Rwanda and how our understanding of the concept of “genocide” evolved as a consequence of those facts. (file “recent”)
Contrast/compare the Kpelle moot and the Panchayat process (files “Kpelle” and “Panchayat”).
What are the issues related to the “imposition” of the Rights of the Child in the case of child-prostitutes in Thailand? (file “imposing”).
How do the Cottica Djuka manage justice at the village level (file “village”).
Describe the Dalits and their issues related to the topic of human rights (fine “dalit”).
PAPER 3 – 8 pages
John Jay College of Criminal Justice—
Department of Latin American and Latinx Studies
LLS 325 Spring 2022
Final Project/Paper- 30pts. Due May 23
—Research Paper-Latinx in Mass Media (30 pts)
You will use a movie and at least four articles to support your critique of an issue discussed in class: (criminal justice, economic, social, political and/or cultural) affecting Latinx groups’ portrayal in the media.
The movie must focus on a specific Latinx group, it MUST be different than your own racial/ethnic group. Be careful not to pick a documentary or a movie that does not give you enough material for your thesis.
How is the issue you chose reflected in the storyline? How does it connect to our class lectures?
Describe the language and images used to portray this group. Explain how and why they are labeled a minority group, according to the 5 characteristics discussed -DTSAM.
What kind of stereotypes or assumptions are presented in the movie? Describe if there are clear examples of prejudice or discrimination. Anything else worthy of mention?
Find FOUR peer-reviewed articles (academic journals) which discuss your TOPIC/THESIS, not necessarily your movie. Link the main thesis of your articles: do they support or contradict your thesis, your analysis of your group and its portrayal in the movie. Make sure you find the source of your document. Do not use Wikipedia. DO NOT USE A MOVIE REVIEW..
Due May 23, end of day.
8-10 pages, typed, 12 pt. New Times Roman font, double-spaced, APA STYLE, please proofread.
Provide reference page and quote or paraphrase all work that is not your own.
Examples of APA Style http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research/apastyle1.pdf
RESOURCES:
Abstracts: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Annotated bibliographies: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
American Psychological Association (APA) research paper format and documentation style: http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=136486&sid=1169197
Outlines: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/1/
Thesis statements: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/1/
COLLEGE RESOURCES & ACADEMIC SUPPORT
Writing Center: Rm. 1.68 NB / Phone (212) 237-8569
Center for English Language Support (CELS): Rm. L. 1201 NH / Phone (212) 237-8231
Computer Labs: Rm. L2.72.00 / Phone (212) 237-8047
RELEVANT WEB SITES:
American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org/
American Immigration Council: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org
Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty-usa.org
Building Blocks For Youth – http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org
Center for Constitutional Rights: http://ccrjustice.org/
Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org
LatinoJustice/PRLDEF: http://latinojustice.org/
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund: http://www.maldef.org/
NACLA Report on the Americas: http://www.nacla.org
New York Civil Liberties Union: http://www.nyclu.org
National Council of La Raza: http://www.nclr.org
Pew Research Center/Hispanic Trends: http://pewhispanic.org
Sentencing Project: http://www.sentencingproject.org
Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/