Originally assigned in COMM 3011: “Media, Medicine, and the Arts of Mortality” (Fall 2023) at the Annenberg School for Communication

Description

The final assignment for this course is a public humanities media production project with a research-based argument about media and death in a form/medium other than a conventional academic essay.

You can think of public humanities as humanistic scholarship for not-just-academic audiences. Traditional academic scholarship tends to happen at universities and get disseminated in scholarly journals and books. Public humanities attempts not just to supplement these formats, but to decenter them and expand the range of venues and media for scholarly work. So, public humanities isn't just an add-on to conventional scholarship, a translation, simplification, watering down, or afterthought. As Evan Carton, founder of the University of Texas Humanities Institute puts it, “Public humanities is about finding both practical and conceptual locations, spaces, and translations between the various kinds of humanities work that people are doing." In other words, public humanities broadens our recognition of what counts as scholarly work; connects humanistic work at universities with the efforts of other organizations, institutions, and communities; and spans various media.

The format of your project is open ended. You will choose your own topic, formulate a research question, develop an argument, and create something in a medium of your choice. You can work by yourself or in groups of 2-3. Don't worry if you're not immediately sure what to do! We'll work on this project in stages throughout the semester: in class, through short assignments, and in individual meetings.

Possible formats

These are just suggestions. Please reach out if you have other ideas! Note, however, that the assignment isn't completely open. While creativity is encouraged, this is not a "creative" exercise (a work of fiction, poetry, visual art, music, or a play), but a critical/analytical project.

  • Cultural criticism / public humanities writing
    • a blog post or series of blog posts
    • an op-ed or series of op-eds
    • a longform article
    • an interview (with an introduction)
    • a review (or a series of reviews) of one or more books, films, television shows, or art exhibitions
    • You can find good examples of these genres in publications like The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, Parapraxis, LOGIC, and n+1. 
  • Documentary short film or video essay
  • Social media, any platform
    • I will collect some examples of public humanities work on social media. For now, you might check out Alok's book reports on Instagram (although they're more summary than research/argument) and Eric Cervini's book reviews on TikTok (both creators focus on LGBTQ history, theory, and culture).
  • A podcast story/segment
  • Oral history
    • Voice of Witness has some great resources on conducting oral histories with marginalized narrators
  • Digital humanities resource or website (could be a prototype or a wireframe/design rather than a fully-functional website)
  • Design and curation of a museum or library exhibition
  • Zine
    • Zine Basics, Barnard College Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning
    • Article about zine projects in Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser's "Gender and Media" class

Questions to consider

  • What audience(s) do you want to reach? (should be more focused than "everyone" and broader than "people in this class.")
  • What media production skills might be most useful for your future academic work, career, or other activities and interests? What skills do you already have?
  • What are the characteristics, affordances, and limitations of different media and how might they shape the work you're trying to do? At a very basic level, for example, do you think a project on your topic should have a visual component? If your project involves talking to or interviewing people, how important is it for the audience to hear their voice (vs. read their words) and/or see them speaking?
  • What can a public humanities project accomplish that a conventional academic essay can't? Daniel Fisher names five goals for publicly engaged humanities. Does your project fit into any of these categories? A different one?
  1. Informing Contemporary Debates
  2. Amplifying Community Voices and Histories
  3. Helping Individuals and Communities Navigate Difficult Experiences
  4. Expanding Educational Access
  5. Preserving Culture in Times of Crisis and Change

Parameters, Workload, and Grading

The intellectual work of this project for each student should be roughly equivalent to that of a 10-12 page research paper (i.e., group projects should be longer, larger and/or more ambitious than individual ones). Each member of a group will be graded individually, and should submit a 1-2 page explanation of their contribution to their project.

(I know this is a bit vague, but parameters for projects are a bit more difficult to quantify than essays. For example, how many minutes of audio is equivalent to a 10-12 page paper? It's hard to say, because the answer would depend on style and execution: a hastily-edited and unfocused, rambling interview could go on for 90 minutes without demonstrating much preparation or creativity, while a well-produced five minute audio story could display a great deal of erudition, thoughtfulness, and technical skill. I'll work with each student and group individually to help you define an appropriate scope, scale, and workload for your projects.)

If you choose a format that's new to you, please be aware that production may take more time and energy than a conventional research paper. For example, if you want to create a podcast segment but have never edited audio before, learning how to do so will require a substantial investment of time. If you have a more ambitious project (ambitious in scale, length, or necessary technical skills), you might want to consider forming a group. I'm not a technical expert in media production, but can direct you to help, resources, and equipment at Penn, and will of course support you with project conceptualization, research, and argument development as needed.

Regardless of medium, all projects will be evaluated based on the following criteria. The project:

  • has a clear and well-defined topic with a reasonable scope.
  • is research-based and draws on 4-5 high-quality secondary sources beyond assigned course readings (you're very welcome to use assigned reading in addition to other sources you find). By "high-quality," I mean that sources should be relevant, appear in a reputable venue (a good peer-reviewed journal or a well-designed public humanities project), and offer something constructive and helpful to your understanding of your topic and/or your methods for approaching the topic. If you find relevant but weak secondary sources on your topic (pieces you think are poorly written or ill-conceived), don't use them unless you have evidence that they're highly influential and need public correction (this is the scholarly version of not punching down). Group projects should draw on 6-10 secondary sources.
  • must present a cogent argument. Projects should aim for more than description or summary, and incorporate an interesting, arguable, non-obvious claim about the topic, grounded in sharp analysis and compelling primary-source evidence. Evidence can take many forms, including works of literature, films, television shows, commercials, advertisements, marketing materials, historical documents, speeches, videos, websites, mobile apps, and social media posts. You can also create/collect primary sources through techniques like interviews, focus groups, and photography.
  • should offer (or potentially offer) some benefit, use, or value to its audience. This could take many forms, including but not limited to Fisher's five goals pasted above.
  • should be self-contained and complete. It's wonderful if you want to do a project that's part of a larger and longer-term effort, but whatever you submit should make sense and stand on its own.
  • should include a works cited/consulted (my personal preference is the Chicago Manual of Style, but any format works). If it's not apparent in your project how you used these sources, please add a 1-2 page explanation of how your research informed the design and execution of the project.

Examples of Student Work