Assignment: Applied Anthropology Project

Part 1

Throughout this course you will research a social problem or anthropological topic of your choice and develop a plan for how to use applied anthropology to understand and solve this problem or topic.

Your Research Project in this course is cumulative. You will describe a problem or topic and set up your wikispace to present your research.

Step 1: Selecting and Describing a Problem or Topic

Step 1 focuses on selection and description of a social problem or anthropological topic that will be the focus of your work throughout the course. To begin, select a problem or topic from the list below or click on the topic file link to see more options.

a. Community recreation: A local parks and recreation department needs help with making improvements to local parks and recreation areas.

b. Product marketing: A manufacturer needs help with "user perspectives" to market a specific product (you may select the product).

c. Consumer behavior-based office product: An office supply manufacturer needs help in designing a project to identify the next big consumer technology.

d. Women's healthcare needs: A nonprofit organization needs help in arguing that budget cuts affect women's health needs in an ethnically diverse community.

e. Student lunch program: A local school district needs help designing a student lunch program that is nutritious and acceptable cross-culturally.

f. Conservation site for tourism: A local conservation group needs to better understand the attitudes of tourists towards a particular conservation area to promote tourism.

g. Attitudes towards sugared drinks: A local dental school needs help in finding out attitudes toward sugared drinks among ethnic populations within 50 miles of its location.

Once you have selected your problem or topic, describe the topic in a two- to three-page paper. In your paper, be specific about the dimension and scope of the selected problem or topic by doing the following:

a. Describe who is affected and how they are affected.

b. Describe how factors such as culture, ethnicity, gender, race, age, religion, and/or sexual orientation inform the various dimensions of your chosen problem or topic.

c. Present specific statistical data from scholarly sources to support your analysis.

The paper must be two to three pages in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style. You must use at least two scholarly sources, that is, articles in peer-reviewed journals available through Ashford University Library, books, or eBooks to support your points. In addition to the two scholarly sources, you may use credible websites (Wikipedia is not acceptable), that is, only those that appear to have factual information and are generated by a nongovernment organization (N.G.O.) or government agency, or are reputable news sources. Cite all sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA style, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Wikispace:

After selecting a topic, go to Wikispaces and sign up for a free wikispace. Use the Wikispace Set-Up Job Aid to make sure your site is correctly set up.

ANT Topics

1. Welfare-mothers

Think about would you train nutritionists to work with welfare-mothers.

2. Immigrant Community Perceptions on Healing

Think of one immigrant community in a specific area and develop a report on its perceptions on health and healing (focus on one ailment) for a local hospital.

3. English Learning/Literacy Program Perceptions

Examine the perceptions of students of a particular ethnic and/or racial group in an English learning program or a literacy program about their own and teachers' identities and roles in the classroom to recommend pedagogical changes in the program.

4. Planters, Planting Techniques, and Government

Think about how you would mediate between planters, such as those practicing slash and burn agriculture, and government to introduce new planting techniques that do not spoil the land, nor clash with people's ancestral ways of planting.

5. Eco-Friendly Car

Think about aiding one of the leading car companies in design an eco-friendly car that appeals to green consumers and their lifestyle choices without alienating other and/or previous customers.

6. Personalized Mobile Device

Think about how you would aid a hypothetical company in personalizing a mobile device for its consumers. Focus on a particular age group.

7. Folk Knowledge of Plants

Design a research project that argues for the use of folk knowledge of invasive plants to help authorities bring their management methods in line with that of the indigenous people.

8. Recycling Behavior

Conduct a study of on people's recycling behavior in a facility or organization, such as an apartment complex or a college campus to understand if the types of containers, their placement, and the sexes and ages of the users influence their recycling behaviors.

9. Sustainable Seafood Marketing

Design a project for a seafood restaurant that wants to market its product as sustainable and nutritious as compared to corporate seafood products.

10. Eco-friendly Dentistry

Think about how you can aid a dentistry develop eco-friendly products and procedures to attract clients.

11. Income Projects for Women

Examine how you will mediate between women and local government to turn women's house projects, such as textile work, honey bee farming, cattle-raising, cooked food, etc. into sustainable income for them.

12. Alternative Nutrition

Carve out a plan of action to fight hunger in your community through alternative nutrition-building knowledge and cultivation.

13. Marketing Organic Coffee

Think about ways in which you would aid a hypothetical coffee shop that wants to market organic, fair- trade coffee.

14. Urban Youth Health

Think about the steps you would take to create awareness against unhealthy eating habits in urban youth in a particular community, and offer alternative diets.

15. Myths about HIV/AIDS

Design a project to creates awareness about the myths and perceptions related to HIV/AIDS in a particular community with regard to cultural, ethnic, gender and/or sexual orientation issues. Also makes prevention recommendations.

16. ObamaCare

Examine the extent to which professional, cultural, ethnic, age, gender and/or sexual issues define support and opposition to ObamaCare.

17. Occupy Wall Street

Draft a plan of action to mobilize people and generate support for the Occupy Wall Street movement in a community over a span of 6 months. Relate it to economic, cultural, ethnic, and racial politics in the country and the demographics of the area.