Final Project

Guidelines

Your final project for this course will be a creative critical engagement with one or more of the texts, themes, and/or topics covered in this course. Your project must make some argument, explicit or implicit, which helps us understand the lived experience and/or the cultural construction of age.

The genre of your final project will largely be determined by your interests. Your project might take one of (but is not limited to) the following forms:

• An interview with one of the seniors which compares your experiences of reading specific texts
• A series of vignettes documenting time spent with a senior
• A fictional diary (à la Lessing) which documents time spent with a fictional old woman
• A collage of pop cultural representations of elderly people
• A documentary
• A short video (a few minutes)
• A longer film (more than a few minutes)
• A short play
• A short story
• A novella or chapters from a novel (or a proposal for a novel)
• Collection of shorter poems (at least three)
• Long poem (something in the range of a three pages or more)
• Website (blog, social media site, etc.)
• Artwork (painting, sculpture, etc.)
• A zine
• A dance or other embodied performance

Your final project will be made up of the following components:

• A project proposal (April 20)
• The project itself, accompanied by a 3-4 page critical introduction (May 4)
• A 5-7 minute conference presentation (May 4)

Project Proposal

Two weeks before our conference presentation (April 20), you will submit a 2-page proposal for your final project.

Mainly, the proposal should indicate the text(s) or ideas you intend to engage with, an idea or argument or curiosity you wish to investigate, and the genre of your final project. Is it an interview? a zine? an adaptation? a performance piece? Explain how this modality will help us understand your idea.

Your ideas should be focused enough to be workable. Broad topics like “age” or “feminism” or “gender” or “race” are too broad for this project (or any project, ever). Instead, narrow your scope to the tiny details or oddities which are particular to your interests. Instead of “old women,” consider taking up the topic of “old women and bus transportation in Fruitvale.”

Separate from the 2-page proposal, include a preliminary bibliography of 3-5 sources that will help you craft a thoughtful, interesting, and literarily relevant discussion. Although these may include texts covered in our course, I encourage you to expand your scope to include others as well.

Your proposal should address the following points:

• Describe your project. What form or genre will it take? Why that particular form?
• What are your goals for this project? What is it meant to show us? What intellectual work does your project do?
• What cultural, historical, theoretical, biographical, etc. ideas inspired this project? What connections are you making to ideas covered in this class?
• What interests you about this project? This can be a free write or informal narrative. Don’t be afraid to make it personal—you might find your argument there.
• How will you accomplish this project? What materials or technology do you need? What’s your timeline? Which texts do you need to review? Are you collaborating with anyone else?
• Do you have any concerns about the project? If so, what are they?

Your project proposal may be submitted in bullet points; however, I encourage you to massage your ideas into paragraphs that flow. If you produce a thoughtful and cohesive proposal, you should be able to adapt it directly into your critical introduction, as it covers the kinds of ideas I need to know in order to fairly assess your project.

Critical Introduction

Your final project must be accompanied by a 3-4 page critical introduction which describes the project, its goals, and your experiences creating it. Your critical introduction should act as a kind of museum card; it should provide important context to allow me to “read” and appreciate the intellectual work your project is doing. The critical introduction may be a revised and formalized version of your proposal. Both the final project and critical introduction are due on the last day of class (May 4).

Conference Presentation

During our final meeting (May 4), we will host a literary salon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center to celebrate the end of the course. Each student will prepare a 5-7 minute presentation on their final project.

Your presentation should include some of the information from your proposal and/or critical introduction. Describe the project, explain your goals and methods for completing it, explore some of the ideas or texts that inspired you, and reflect on your overall experience.

Finally, you are encouraged to give us a taste of your final project. Your presentation must be accompanied by some kind of visual aid to help us follow along, whether it be a PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or physical handout.