A great social movement assignment – I promise!

I gave this assignment in my Social Movements seminar (30 students) last fall.   The assignment is an adaptation of the norm-breaking assignments that you often see in psychology or intro sociology. The overall goal of the assignment is for students to realize that social changes isn’t just about demonstrating or protesting but also everyday micro-level resistance.

Here is my money-back guarantee:

1)  your students will love this assignment

2)  you will love reading their papers (really)

Some examples of the experiences my students wrote about:

1. Going to a bar with full make-up and then the following weekend going without

2. Not trying to hide one’s weight under baggy clothing at the gym

3. Bringing Tupperware to McDonald’s

4. Speaking Mandarin in class

5. Challenging a high school formal dress code that mandated women to wear dresses and to accompany men (a past experience)

6. Not speaking in class (a male student)

7. Wearing unisex clothing

This assignment is really interesting as it is student directed (they have no trouble coming up with ideas) and experiential.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly. I hope you and your students like it.

If you have an assignment you would like me to post please send it my way.  It would be great were MI to serve as a forum for social movement teaching resources.