LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature

Web Highlight, spring 2006

Danielle Lynch

March 2, 2006

Web-highlight on research proposals

Introduction/Assignment review:

The research proposal seems to serve as a launching pad for honing research essay or journal ideas. If you plan to write the essay, the proposal should include the topic of research, texts to be utilized, and potential topics. If you’re going with the journal option, come up with a theme and direction your journal will go in, including the possible contents of it.

I found several previous assignments particularly helpful for developing my own research proposal.

LITR 5731 Seminar In American Minority Literature UHCL 2003 Research Proposals

Example 1: 

Craig Sprowl

            I am interested in doing a research journal on African-American Slave Narratives.  I want to look into other slave narratives and find what is common among them, and what differentiates them.  I would like to see how the slave narratives are similar to the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, in the sense of the American success story (Franklin is a self-made man, and the slaves achieve success and define themselves by gaining freedom).

            I am also interested in the symbolism found in the slave narratives and the connection that can be made between the Biblical Garden of Eden and being cast out (Africa as an Eden, and cast out as in becoming a slave).  Also the parallels between African-American slavery, captivity, escape, and freedom, compared to the Biblical story of slavery of the Israelites under Egypt and the exodus-the wandering in the wilderness-and eventually the Promised Land.  Since the slaves existed in the Christian culture and adopted the Christian religion- what influence did the Christian stories have on how they saw themselves or expressed their condition in their narratives?  In what ways do the slave narratives express the culture, especially religious, that the slaves find themselves in?

       I found some incredible websites dealing with Slave Narratives, also found some intriguing books and some journal articles that discuss patterns and motifs found in slave narratives.  My bibliography is very preliminary, and I need to narrow it down.  I am not absolutely sure that a journal is the best way to approach this topic. 

Explanation:

This proposal was helpful to me because it seemed fully developed. Not only does the student offer Web sites, primary and secondary sources he’s consulted, but he also proposes the type of project he’ll be working on (essay or journal) and gives possible topics and directions to travel in with those topics. The student also asks questions to narrow down what he’s unsure of as he began working on his research project.

Example 2:  LITR 5731 2001 UHCL research proposal

Explanation: This example was helpful because the student was morphing a potential midterm topic into a research project, allowing her to delve deeper. The student was also choosing to compare two separate minority groups with two different.

In terms of projects that I find interesting, refer to: LITR 5731 Seminar in American Minority Literature UHCL 2004 sample student research project 

This student took the readings and concepts of the class and chose to weave them into her area of expertise, a humanities course she teaches. I think the projects will ultimately have more of an impact on us and classmates if we take what we may already know and intertwine it into our proposal and project.