Women’s & gender studies

Short paper #2
The second short paper (2-3 pages) will ask students to engage with one or both of the Ursula LeGuin short stories that we read in class: “Mountain Ways” and “Coming of Age in Karhide.” These stories engage with gender identity and sexual orientation using a unique perspective. For this paper, students are asked to find news articles discussing current events which also relate to issues of gender identity and/or sexual orientation (these articles should be cited using any citation style of the student’s choosing).

Students should write an essay which analyzes and discusses how the short stories may be commenting on/engaging with the types of issues found in the news items. In other words, what types of real-life issues, problems, or conflicts might LeGuin have been analyzing/critiquing in her stories? What might she say about the events in your news story? What assumptions about gender/sexuality are made in each?

Students will be assessed based on the relevance/timeliness of the articles they choose, their explanation/analysis of the similarities and differences between the stories and the article, their demonstration of the concepts relating to gender/sexuality discussed in class, the accuracy, complexity, and depth of their analysis, and the general polish of the essay (e.g. lack of spelling/grammar/mechanical errors, employment of interesting language, lack of awkward style, etc.).

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