Sociological Autobiography

Purpose: This project provides you [the student] with an opportunity to pause, reflect, and apply sociological concepts to your lived experiences. This project is not just any autobiography but your sociological autobiography. That is, tell some of your life story–where you came from, how you grew up, how you got where you are, why you think and act the way you do, your major life choices so far, what values you hold, why and how your values shape your thoughts and actions, etc.–while using sociology as your guide. This project is intended to help you deepen your understanding of sociological concepts and to demonstrate your comprehension. I hope you find the project entertaining, interesting and meaningful. Upon completion of this project, students will be able to define and apply key sociological concepts to their lived experience and social world.

Description: 1) Create a pictorial autobiography (e.g., slideshow, digital photo album, video, etc.) with descriptive captions that thoroughly cover the concepts as they relate to your life, and 2) share some of your sociological autobiography in our class showcase.

Essential Information:
● Students will use Google Slides, PowerPoint, Keynote or Canva to create their projects. If you want to do something different/more creative, message me on Canvas so I can see if the format is a good fit.
● Projects should have a cover slide and a reference slide with all references formatted in any style guide (ASA, APA, MLA).
● Make sure that you sufficiently cover all concepts. I cannot stress that enough; cover the topic thoroughly (see sample slides).
o Thoroughly means that you cover five main things for each concept 1) list and define each concept using the course text, 2) paraphrase the textbook definition– define it in your own words, 3) locate at least one photo (preferably, a photo with you in it, but not required) that helps illustrate each sociological concept (note: one photo could capture multiple concepts at one time), 4) provide a short description of the photo, and 5) explain the sociological significance of the concept in relation to your lived experiences.
● Concepts should be properly defined, and sources should be cited in any style guide (ASA, APA, MLA, etc.) format.
● Use clipart sparingly. No more than two clipart images in your entire project. For this project, you need to examine the material world around you (your home, family, friends, groups to which you belong, the built environment, etc., etc.). Therefore, it’s important to limit the amount of cartoon/clipart type images in your project.
● Review the sample slides I created and message me with any specific questions.

Your autobiography will be completed in two parts (midterm and final). For the midterm project, you will cover concepts 1-10 (50 points possible) and for the final project (50 points possible), you will add concepts 11-20. By the end of the semester, your project will include all 20 concepts listed below, plus, you’ll have a ‘cover slide’ and an ‘about me’ slide. You will have 22 slides total for the entire project.

Midterm Project Concepts Final Project Concepts

1. sociology, 11. impression management
2. society, 12. front stage and backstage behavior (in the
   Dramaturgy video)
3. social structure, 13. ascribed & achieved status,
4. human agency, 14. role conflict and role strain,
5. conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, OR functionalism 15. social stratification,
6. culture (material & nonmaterial) 16. social class,
7. values and beliefs, 17. ethnicity,
8. social norms, 18. gender identity,
9. language and symbols, 19. gender socialization,
10. socialization + agents of socialization 20. sociological imagination

A caution: This is first and foremost a sociological autobiography.
How do these sociological concepts contribute to who you are today?
Remember Mill’s point about the sociological imagination being a method to understand the individuals in terms of their broader social context– history plus biography, agency plus social structure.

Checklist for each slide (see my sample slides, each of these are labeled on the slide):
√ clearly named the concept(s) covered on the slide,
√ defined each concept using the course text (except where noted),
√ properly cited your source in any style guide format,
√ paraphrased the textbook definition, meaning you defined it in your own words while maintaining the essence of the textbook definition,
√ included at least one photo (preferably, a photo with you in it, but not required) that helps illustrate each sociological concept (use clipart very sparingly, see note above),
√ provided a short description of the photo,
√ applied each concept to your life in a meaningful way,
√ explained the sociological significance of the concept in relation to your lived experiences.
Assessment
The following guideline will be used to evaluate each slide and the overall project:
● A minimally acceptable slide will meet 70% of the guidelines (C-level slides).
● A more thoughtful and stronger slide will meet 80-89% of the guidelines (B-level slides).
● The strongest slides will meet all of the guidelines in the check-list above, be free of spelling and grammar errors, and use-proper-in text citations (A-level slides).