AcademicsSample Plan Application Entries
Plan Objectives & Projects in the Humanities
PHILOSOPHY
Preliminary: A study in philosophy focusing on Kant’s epistemology.
AMERICAN STUDIES
Preliminary: An investigation of the status of the Civil Rights movement in urban America from an economic, social, and political perspective.
Final: Theorizing the current role of social activism in the U.S.
Project: The anatomy of the rise of and the resistance to the criminal
justice system in Los Angeles.
AMERICAN STUDIES
Preliminary: An exploration of poverty in America with an emphasis on race and gender issues.
Final (American Studies/Sociology): A historical and sociological
study of social welfare in the U.S.
Project: An exploration of
documentary images of the poor in the context of shifting ideas
and policies of social welfare.
AMERICAN STUDIES/Educational Theory
Preliminary: I want to study the past, present, and future of American education.
AMERICAN STUDIES
Preliminary: To examine the relationship between political culture and art in America (U.S.), focusing on the 1920-1950 period and the shift from regionalist painting to abstract expressionism.
Final (American Studies & Visual Arts): to examine the relationship
between political culture and art in the U.S. focusing on the first
half of the twentieth century.
Project: A paper exploring American
regionalist painting during the 1930s and a series of paintings
exploring issues of politics and national identity.
ART HISTORY
Preliminary: Using my knowledge of art history, my objective is to create a series of papers in which I draw a comparative analysis between the two Sun Kings, the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 BC) & the French king, Louis XIV (1643-1715 AD).
Final (Art History/History/urban architecture): A comparative
analysis of the two “Sun Kings (the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten & the
French King Louis XIV) evaluating the roles of religion and culture
in the urban design and development of ht capital cities of Versailles
and Tell
el-Amarna.
Project: Three papers: (1) The role of religion at Amarna;
(2) the court culture of Versailles, and (3) the urban development
of the capitals of the Sun Kings.
HISTORY/Asian Studies
Preliminary: An examination of the politics of representation of the Indian caste system with particular attention to insider/outsider distinctions. Through an analysis of literature, film, and news media, I will examine the ways in which the caste system is being questioned/reinforced both in modern-day India and the world at large.
HISTORY/Irish
Final: An exploration of Irish republicanism and Irish nationalism.
Project: A series of papers on various aspects of Irish republicanism
and nationalism.
HISTORY/Education
Preliminary: A study of the history of the American school as an institution and as an idea with a focus on the changes made during revolutionary periods. Project: A study of the structural change of American schooling at the time of the industrial revolution in view of the structures of schooling in place today.
Final: A study of American educational history in the era from
colonialism to the present. The focus is on the history of schooling
and its connection to periods of major social change or revolution.
Project: A set of papers with supporting maps and data that presents
an understanding of American schooling in several revolutionary
periods. A revised design for a present-day alternative school
growing out of a sociological analysis of major themes in the history
of American alternative schooling.
LITERATURE
Preliminary: To continue a study of literature with a focus on modern writers, including Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, William Faulkner, and Thomas Pynchon.
LITERATURE/Poetry
Preliminary: The establishment of a framework for the poetry of Randall Jarrell, considering in particular intuitions and imaginations in language leading to a collection of original poems.
Final: (Writing/poetry, Literature & History): A study of
the American poet Randall Jarrell, considering him to be a romantic
poet profoundly influenced by things German and taking into account
the dramatic qualities of his poems, with supporting work in the
political history of Germany’s Weimar Republic, leading to
a collection of original poems.
Project: Two papers and a collection
of original poems. The larger paper will discuss the poetry of
Randall Jarrell, viewing him as a romantic poet, exploring the
worldview expressed in the poems and considering their dramatic
aspects. The other paper will discuss the political climate of
the Weimar Republic. The poems will reflect the themes explored
in the papers.
LITERATURE
Preliminary: To continue an exploration in literature focusing on nineteenth century Russian literature, with an emphasis on Dostoevsky. To further my understanding of this literature, I am going to begin studying the Russian language, as well as Russian history and specific aspects of philosophy and religion as they relate to this topic.
Final: A study focusing on the works of Dostoevsky and Camus.
An exploration of the individual’s response to the questions
raised by the absurd in the works of Dostoevsky and Camus: If there
is no God and no absolutes, how then can the individual survive
to create meaning, justify knowledge, and live morally?
Project: Two papers. The first is a paper in three parts on Dostoevsky’s
novels The Idiot, The Brothers Karamzov, and Demons. The second
paper explores atheism and the absurd in the works of Camus. Thematically
related supporting work in Russian Orthodox religious thought and
modern Russian literature.
