Essay Prompt: This short “connections” essay assignment asks you to place two or

Essay Prompt:
This short “connections” essay assignment asks you to place two or more texts from Unit 1 into conversation with one another. You may select a concept and a topic or theme from the list below (you can also create your own topic). Whatever you choose, your essay should analyze and discuss texts that are drawn from at least two different weeks of the course.
Rather than summarizing the texts, your essay should develop an interpretive argument that is appropriate to the class’s discussion of power, resistance, and public memory. This paper should be written in the first person (“I think…) and it should reflect your own analytical insights and perspective on the subject, as it is informed by our readings from this unit.
Your essay should discuss at least 1 concept from the list below, and its connection to at least 1 topic on the list.
Key Concepts (Pick 1)
Settler colonialism (including the attempted erasure of Indigenous histories and cultures)
Indigenous sovereignty (and/or resistance to colonialism)
National hegemony and counter-hegemony
Beliefs in “racial nature”
Topics (Pick 1 or More)
US Empire in the Pacific
Culture and the Environment
Migration/Immigration and labor
Gender, sexuality, and/or family
Discrimination (in policy, labor, street violence, etc.)
Religion
Agriculture and Global Trade
Essay Structure & Details:
This essay should be 500-600 words in length, and it should discuss connections between your concept and your analysis of one or more topics across at least 2 readings from the unit (textual readings drawn from different weeks of the class).
Your completed essay should not reproduce writing or content from your Canvas posts. Instead, it should use new evidence from our readings (at least 4 citations, with at least 1 quote per reading) to articulate and support your perspective, as well as the connections you can draw across readings from this unit.
Your essay may include context and/or insights from one or more of our documentary films/podcasts as “background,” but quotes from these media sources do not count toward your minimum quote requirement.
Essay Checklist:
Share your own perspective in the first person (“When I first encountered the idea of “settler colonialism,” I thought…”)
Analyze connections across 2 or more of this unit’s readings, using your concept and topic to focus and nuance your analysis.
Your 2 or more texts must be drawn from different weeks of the course. They can be supplemented with background from our in-class viewing/listening assignments.
Papers should be 500-600 words in length.
Papers should include at least 4 citations (with at least 1 per text).