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African
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What is African?

The study of African and African American experience spans a wide range of academic disciplines, including history, sociology, literature, theology, political science, and public health. Courses in world studies, ethnic studies, and American history regularly ask students to examine how race, identity, and systemic inequality have shaped communities over time. The topic carries intellectual weight because it demands engagement with both historical forces—such as the lasting effects of slavery—and contemporary social realities affecting Black communities in America and beyond.

The papers archived under this topic approach the subject from several distinct angles. Historical analysis appears prominently, particularly tracing African American life from 1865 to the present, including examinations of institutions like the Black Church and Black entertainment and sports organizations. Literary analysis features as well, with attention to works such as Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Other papers take a policy-oriented or comparative approach, weighing topics like the New Deal against later economic stimulus plans, or investigating how health organizations affect minority communities. Sociological case studies examine single Black mothers and poverty, adult literacy, and perceptions of policing.

A strong essay on this topic begins with a specific, arguable thesis rather than a broad statement about race in America. Evidence drawn from historical records, primary texts, policy data, or sociological research tends to carry the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating African American experience as monolithic—successful essays recognize diversity within communities and ground their claims in concrete, well-defined contexts.

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Paper Doctorate

Gender, Power, and Social Theory: Functionalism vs. Conflict Perspectives

¶ … culture contributed to the void in power between men and women? From a functionalist perspective, how is this a positive thing (hint: look at Talcott Parsons)? How does a conflict theorist look at this gap?

Paper Undergraduate

REALM vs. NVS: Comparing Health Literacy Screening Tools

Newest Vital Sign and REALM screen tools in health literacy

Paper Undergraduate

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use Among Adolescents

Alcohol, Tobacco & Drug Use by Adolescents

Paper Undergraduate

Slavery and the Slave Economy in Colonial America

Modern observers likely know in general terms that many Africans were enslaved through the 17th to 19th Centuries, but few probably know the extent of suffering that newly enslaved Africans endured from the outset, nor do many modern observers likely know the legal sources that were used to justify and legitimize the practice in the Old and New Worlds. In fact, some authorities argue that it was not until the end of the 17th Century that racial divisions had become sufficiently codified to protect the "peculiar institution" of slavery in the New World. Given the impact that slavery has had on American society, gaining a better understanding of the origins of the slave economy and its implications for civil rights in the United States represents a timely and valuable enterprise. To this end, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature to describe the background in which slavery emerged and a description of the slave economy. Throughout most of the 17th Century, the tobacco economies of Virginia and Maryland depended of the contract labor of white indentured servants, who were employed for a term of four to five years, then freed.

Essay Doctorate

Caribbean vs. Filipino Latinos: Culture, Identity & History

Indeed, from the outside (and perhaps even from the inside) these two groups of people may appear very similar to each other. Certainly they share a number of traits in terms of their history and the values that govern their everyday lives as well as influence the deepest values of who they are. Discussing the differences between Caribbean Latinos and Filipino Latinos is a way of delineating the most important things that they see as belonging to them: Writing about how these two groups see themselves is also a way of writing about the complex ways in which identity is constructed by those the intersections of past and present, of distant and near.

Paper Undergraduate

Checks and Balances: Limits on U.S. Presidential Power

System of Checks and Balances Limiting Presidential Powers

Paper Doctorate

Low SES and the Achievement Gap: A Multi-Study Review

Reducing the Gap: Success for All and the Achievement of African-American Students

Paper Undergraduate

Critiquing Common Marriage and Family Myths in America

In Debunking Myths about Marriages and Families, Mary Ann Schwartz and Barbara Marliene Scott argue very effectively against five specific beliefs that dominate American cultural views on the institution of marriage and…

Social Psychology: Concepts, Applications, and Everyday Life

Social Psychology Statement of the learner intends to research What I would like to be informed about regarding social psychology is all the ways and applications in which this concept can be understood and applied. Not just in scholarly situations but in every-day activities, among friends, at work, or in social situation. Having a good understanding of any aspect of psychology for a student (or any alert person) in these times is helpful and the pursuit of that understanding brings insight and knowledge. What the learner hypothesizes vis-à-vis what he may discover in the literature The discoveries that are available in the literature are going to be fun to explore, and I have a clue that they will relate to human behavior from a scientific perspective. I would imagine those scholarly journals will likely relate to leadership, to social behaviors from the perspective of individuals and from the perspective of a group, why certain people act the way they do and how people respond to mean spirited situations, how prejudice and bias play a role in social behavior, and other psychological aspects of social behaviors. This field is always interesting to me, because every new thing that is learned in a psychology context either reminds me of some situation I've been in, or reminds me of someone I have known, or simply points out why humans behave the way they do.

Paper Undergraduate

Broken American Dreams in Walker and Erdrich's Short Stories

The short stories "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and "The Red Convertible" by Louise Erdrich both concern the American Dream to some extent. Rather than its fulfillment however, the stories describe how the dream has…

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