Cultural Geography

Choose TWO different topics within the field of Cultural Geography. Try to pick things you’re interested in or that are relevant to your life. These could be areas of exploration (“I want to know more about the minority groups on the island of Mindanao.” “I’d like to see how “downtown” urban core communities evolve over time.”) or questions you’re wondering about and genuinely don’t know the answer to (“Why are there so many German speakers in rural southern Missouri?” “How does language use in East Africa influence local identities?”). The key component here is genuine curiosity. Do you have your topics formulated? Good. Great. Now narrow them. Narrow them again. Keep narrowing your topics until you get down to one or two central questions or ideas for each. Spend time on some initial research. Make sure your topics are complex, researchable, and interesting to you (this will come through in the writing). By the end of thinking, researching, and narrowing, you should have two initial theses/research questions that would be productive for the Research Essay. (If you’re narrowing it down to locality, use Seattle, WA) After formulating TWO possible topics, write the following responses for BOTH: 1. Write out your initial topic. Distill your critical idea down to a sentence or two. You could have something as specific as an organized thesis statement, or you could simply have an area you’d like to explore. 2. Write a paragraph (150-200 words) that serves as an initial abstract. While you don’t have to have a solid argument at this point, what do you think could be argued about this topic? What’s interesting to you about this subject? What don’t you know that you’d like to explore? Based on your initial findings, what is the research like on this topic? How can you try to add something new? 3. Build a research plan (in 100-150 words). Where can you find appropriate sources? What do you need those sources to do? (Support particular points, lay out the background, argue against, etc.). What specific aspects of this topic do you think you could adequately address given the length/time/source requirements? Write out a rough schedule encompassing the planning, research, reorganizing, and writing stages.