Learning Objectives:

The goal of this assignment is to inspire you to consider your placement within the social world. In Introduction to Sociology among other things we have discussed various axes along which subjectivities are produced, for example gender, race, sexualities, class and work. How we come to know ourselves is intimately connected to how various understandings of race, gender, sexuality are produced in the broader social world.

Task:

For this essay assignment, you are required to write a 4-5 page personal essay that begins by opening your wallet and looking at your (likely multiple) pieces of identification. How do you understand yourself in relation to group membership, and the various roles and statuses you hold? How do your pieces of identification connote specific aspects of gender and racial and ethnic identity?

How do you understand your relationships to various forms of privilege and oppression?

Since this is a personal essay, you are required to use your own life as a source of empirical data. However, you are expected to analyze this data critically, employing ideas that we have discussed in class and that are explained in your textbook.

Possible course concepts could include: roles and statues, bureaucracies, educational status, racial oppression/ privilege, gender norms, conspicuous consumption, heteronormativity, the "Standard North American Family" etc.