CSP 19: LGBT Rights in the Era of Obama and Google
Fall 2010 

SECTION I: UNDERSTANDING IDENTITY: INTERSECTIONS OF GENDER, RACE & SEXUALITY

Paper #1: Understanding Identity

PROMPT AVAILABLE: Friday September 17th
FIRST VERSION DUE: Friday October 1st
PAPER DUE: Friday October 8th

In a typed, double-spaced 3-4 page (800-1200 word) essay respond to the following questions:

Which aspect of your identity (i.e. race or gender or something else) is the most salient? (How) is your answer to this question affected by hybridity (when identity characteristics are not discrete) and intersectionality (when identity characteristics are imbricated)? Your paper should involve a critical examination of a selection of the concepts we have been discussing in this section of the class (social constructions of gender, sex, sexuality and race, intersectionality, mestiza consciousness, et cetera). Please be sure to contextualize the intersections of your particular cultural, ethnic, economic, national and/or sexual make-up in relation to how these constituencies (race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and nationality) inform the ways you identify (and/or are identified).

REMINDERS
0) YOUR PAPER SHOULD BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY BY SHARING IT WITH ME VIA GOOGLEDOCS.
1) NO LATE PAPERS OR ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED
WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL.
2) YOUR PAPER SHOULD BE DOUBLE SPACED, IN 12 POINT FONT WITH 1-INCH MARGINS.
3) YOUR PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE A THESIS STATEMENT (BOLDED) WHICH DEMONSTRATES A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CONCEPTS REFERENCED ABOVE.
4) YOUR PAPER SHOULD INCLUDE A "WORKS CITED" PAGE OF ANY ARTICLES YOU REFERENCE IN YOUR ESSAY. YOU MAY USE MLA OR APA CITATION STYLE.
5) A SUCCESSFUL PAPER WILL REFERENCE AT LEAST TWO OF THE READINGS THAT ARE INCLUDED IN THIS SECTION OF THE COURSE.