Your African Humanities Analysis assignment is a brief review of a specific expressive cultural medium (music, art, cinema, literature, photography, etc.) within your selected African country, a region of Africa, or a continental comparative. Your analysis must be based on information collected from at least three different scholarly sources from the online databases on the Tyree Library Website.
Assignment Objectives
- identify a specific expressive cultural medium in African humanities
- describe how the medium communicates unique social and historical experiences in Africa
- compare three different scholarly sources addressing the medium
- formulate a declarative statement about African humanities using at least three academic sources
Where to Begin
- Step One: Use the academic databases in the Tyree Library to research a cultural expression in a specific Africa country, region or across the continent. some examples can include: ‘street art in Malawi,’ ‘hip hop music in West Africa,’ ‘feminism in African literature,’ etc. See the bibliography page for research resources.
- Step Two: Select at least three scholarly articles and/or books related to the topic. (It is not unusual to change your topic after conducting research and finding new information. ) Summarize each source with a paragraph.
- Step Three: Evaluate and compare similarities and differences in the information in each article.
- Step Four: Formulate a declarative sentence about the expressive medium using information in your sources.
- Step Five: Organize your research into a written assignment
Assignment Criteria
The Humanities Analysis should be 500-000 words and organized in Intro-Body-Conclusion with formatted references and in-text citations. The information contained in the analysis should include:
- Introductory Paragraph: A general summary of the analysis that includes a declarative sentence that ties the three articles together. (For example: Contemporary Nigerian music reflects post-colonial politics (article 1), changing gender relationships (article 2), and West African unity (article 3). This makes it necessary to conduct research first, organize the data taken from each article, and then develop your thesis statement based on the data in the articles.
- Body paragraph #1: Summary of scholarly article (ie article about politics in Nigerian music) with in-text citation.
- Body paragraph #2: Summary of scholarly article (ie article about gender relationships in Nigerian music) with in-text citation.
- Body paragraph #3: Summary of scholarly article (ie article about West African unity in Nigerian music.) with intext citation.
- Conclusion: Wraps up paper. Reflects the Introductory paragraph but with greater detail because the reader is now informed.
- Bibliography: Formatted citations of three or more articles
It is a good idea to type the analysis in a Word document and then copy it into the textbox in the Canvas discussion so others can easily read it.