Sociology

SOC150H –Evicted Assignment Instructions –25% The assignment is a 1500 words essay making sense of Evicted through two of the following six themes of the course: 1.Sociological Theory2.Sociological Research & Methods3.Structure & Agency4.Social Class5.Race6.GenderIn terms of looking at each individual theme, using theme 1 or theme 2 would be analyzing Evicted as a piece of sociology scholarship, theme 1 using concepts or key ideas from Sociological theory to analyze Evicted and theme 2 using concepts or key ideas from Sociological Research and Methods to analyze the Evicted study. The focus of those essays would be less about the “what” of Evicted, than on “how” it was put together as a piece of academic work. If you choose theme 3 you would analyze the content of Evicted through the Structure-Agency dynamic. How are each present? How do they interact together to show the complexity of the subject matter? Finally, if you choose theme 4,5, or 6, you would make use of concepts or key ideas from the assigned readings for those respective weeks to analyze the role played by social class, race, or gender in the events and lives of individuals depicted by Matthew Desmond in Evicted. This assignment pushes you to explain the intersection of two of the above six themes, resulting in an explanation of how these two themes further your understanding of Evicted as a piece of sociological academic research. For example, using theme 1 or 2 would be taking the “how”of this academic work and applying it to another theme: if you apply theme 1 to any of 4-6 you can explain how Sociological Theory takes the shape of Structure/Agency, Social Class, Race, or Gender; if you apply theme 2 to themes 4-6, you can outline how the research methods used impacts the depictions of Structure/Agency, Social Class, Race, or Gender; as another example,if you decide to choose two themes from 4-6you can outline one part of intersectionality depicted in Evicted based on your two chosen themes. The point is to not only explain them separately, but to combine them to provide a richer explanation of the Evicted book. This is not a summary of Evicted. You select two of the above six themes and analyze Evicted through the intersection of those themes, providing an analysis of the book based on the concepts you have learned throughout the course.This assignment does not require any outside research, it should make use of course material from the lectures and the textbook as well as content from Evicted. For best results, your assignment should not read as a series of isolated points, but should construct a narrative that connects the course content to the Evicted book around your chosen theme. Using the se themes, you get to decide what is the specific focus of your essay. It is a good idea to focus on a handful of key ideas/concepts related to your chosen themes and organize your essay around those: the more precisely you explain and apply key concepts from the class with the Evicted book, the better you explain your understanding of the course material.Your essay should include an introduction (about 150-200 words), a conclusion (about 150-200 words), and a main body (1100-1200 words) broken up into different sections.
The assignment will be assessed on four criteria: 1.Demonstrating your understanding of the themes you chose2.The depth and precision of your explanations connecting your two themes3.The quality of your engagement with the material from Evicted4.The clarity and quality of your writing and the narrative constructed. You should include a title page that provides the title to your assignment, your name, student number, your TA’s name, and the word count for your paper. You should also include a bibliography that contains not only Evicted, but the chapter(s) or articles you make use of in your essay. You can use the referencing style you feel most comfortable with (APA, MLA, Chicago, ASA, etc) as long as you use it consistently. Title page and bibliography do not count towards the word count.