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Mr. Nelson: A.P. Human Geography (APHG) Summer Assignment
Email: nelsonsaphumangeography@gmail.com
Website: www.nelsonsaphumangeography.weebly.com
Twitter: @nelsonshumangeo
Pre-Assignment 1: send me an email with your first and last name as the subject so that I can put you
into a mailing list for the year. I will reply as a confirmation that I received your email. If you don’t get a reply
within a day, assume that I did not get your email and resend (*please note the ‘s’ in the email address – this is
usually where people misspell.)
Pre-Assignment 2: Create a Twitter student account (if you have an existing Twitter account you may use
that, but if you feel more comfortable, or if your personal account is set to ‘private’, create a new student
account used only for this course, and follow me @nelsonshumangeo
Written Assignment (Mini Research Paper): 5 pages in length, double spaced, typed, 1 inch margins,
emailed to the address above. *GO TO WEBSITE TO DOWLOAD THIS!
Theme: Globalization and Culture
Task: You will a 5 page research paper (more is fine, less is not) that synthesizes ALL of the 10
articles/videos listed on in this packet, to answer the following guiding questions:
1. How would you define globalization?
2. How does globalization impact traditional culture, for good or for bad?
3. To what extent is globalization a positive or negative for different people throughout the world (use
examples from the texts)
4. What are some countries, in particular, which are impacted by globalization (discuss examples from
text)
5. How does globalization have economic, social, and/or political impacts on countries?
These are just guiding question – don’t list them and bullet answers individually, I want this written as a paper
- I don’t expect perfection, but I do want you to adhere to my direction and tips as much as possible – and
you’re free to email me as much as you need to over the summer if you need guidance (or if you want me to
look at a draft of your work to see if you’re on the right path).
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Tips on Writing This Research Paper:
So let me start with what NOT to do (if you find yourself doing this, stop!)
DO NOT:
Summarize all of the points of each of the articles! The point of this paper is not to summarize articles – I’m
sure you can do that already.
Quote (at least not much at all) – I don’t want you to repeat what the author said by copying/pasting.
Particularly avoid long, block quotes, but try not to do so at all.
List facts from each article, one at a time – for example, don’t do this:
“In article 1 it says this, in article 2 it says this, then in article 3 it says this…” and so on.
Do:
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Weave information from the articles together into a comprehensive piece of writing
Use important information from each source that guides your writing, rather than random pieces of
information
Discuss all aspects of globalization, and the different ways in which globalization changes aspects of
different cultures from around the world, in both positive and negative ways.
I suggest that you send me a draft of about 1 page when you
have it completed. This way I can give you some feedback
and critique before you write the whole thing incorrectly!
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Resources:
Globalization:
One of the major themes of the course (as well as numerous books, documentaries, college classes, and
academic papers) is the topic of globalization – a term that is used very often and has multiple meanings.
For our purposes, let’s define globalization as the interconnectedness of different places in the world.
This means that various places on Earth that were once isolated from one another now interact, sometimes
on a daily basis. This interaction can be between individuals (imagine 2 people in different countries
communicating via Twitter or Facebook) or between countries in one of the following ways:
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Economic (trade, multi-national corporations like McDonald’s or Wal-Mart)
Political (warfare, organizations like the United Nations, NATO, or the European Union)
Social/Cultural Elements/Values (clothing, music, social media, language, food, dress, belief systems
and other cultural elements)
1.)How India Became America:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/how-india-became-america.html?_r=0
2.)The Rise and Fall of Fat in India:
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/the-rise-and-fall-of-fat-in-india/?ref=world
3.)Transforming India’s Concept of Marriage – New York Times Video – 6 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlIBiSoz6rQ
4.)The Lives of the People Who Make Our Clothes (interactive documentary on garment industry in
Bangladesh)
http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/people
5.)The War Next Door: Why Mexico’s Drug Violence is America’s Problem Too
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2080608,00.html
6.)The Girls Next Door (Human-Trafficking and Globalization, NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25SEXTRAFFIC.html?pagewanted=all
7.)The Puzzle of Identifying as Chinese
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/world/asia/the-puzzle-of-identifying-as-chinese.html
8.)In China, ‘Once the Villages Are Gone, the Culture Is Gone’ (article and video – NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/world/asia/once-the-villages-are-gone-the-culture-is-gone.html
9.)Youth in Iran: Inside and Out (Great article, video, and photos of youth culture in Iran, which is
very different from the conservative Islamic cliché we associate with the country)
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/youth-in-iran-inside-and-out/
10.)A Diplomatic Mission for Muslim Hip-Hop
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/us/23beliefs.html?ref=religionandbelief&_r=0