Your final research paper assignment for this course involves doing focused art-historical research on a specific art work relating to our class topic and developing it into a well-argued research paper with full documentation and bibliography.
Part 1: Submit TWO possible choices of art work for the final paper, due: week of June 29 to July 3
Part 2: Initial annotated research bibliography, due: week of July 20 to 24
Part 3: Submit final paper (40%), on or before due: July 28
Papers should be 5-7 double-spaced pages in length, not including bibliography and images (which should be at the end, in that order), in 12 Times font, with no extra spaces between paragraphs (paragraphs should just be indented). All citations should be properly footnoted using the Chicago Manual of Style.
The Writing Center is available as a resource if needed, and students are encouraged to meet with the instructor frequently during the semester concerning these papers and the research strategies they require.
Here are some helpful resources I’d like you to look at and keep in mind. My hope is that this will help you with all your writing projects:
Finally, before going to the different scaffolded parts of this research paper, a word about using Artificial Intelligence: First off, AI’s like ChatGPT are very energy intensive, which means that using them adds to your carbon footprint. Obviously, this is counterproductive, especially for this environmental art history course. If avoiding AI is not possible, then it can be helpful for organizing your thoughts, summarizing readings, and generally serving as tool (though again, a very energy intensive tool). Do not, however, use AI to outsource your own thoughts. Do not let it do your writing for you. So much of our thinking happens through the writing process, and you do not want to miss out on this crucial aspect of developing your mind. After all, for me, this is really the point of college.
Research Paper Assignment, part 1: Choosing Two Possible Research Objects
For this part of the assignment, you want to find an art work to base your research on. This art work must meet these two criteria: 1) it has to deal with an environmental issue in some way, and 2) it has to be by an established artist (established enough to have secondary literature). If you need guidance on choosing artists, please email me by letting me know what issues pertaining to the environment you’re interested in and I will reply with some suggestions.
While your final paper will focus on only one of the works, I would like you to pick two at first, so that you can determine which one might prove to be the best choice for a research paper. You can either choose two possible works from the same artist, or two possible works from two different artists.
A good researcher takes the time assess the value of her or his topic from the very beginning. Once you settle on your object you cannot change your mind later on in the semester, so choose carefully! Does your art object interest you enough that you will be willing to do the necessary extensive research and writing? Is there enough published material on the artist and/or object? Or might there be too much? Ultimately, you must have both primary and secondary source material to produce your final paper.
Due on or before: week of June 29 to July 3. Submit your two artworks me over email. Provide an image of each artwork with a full caption: artist, title, date, and medium. Please remember to compose a proper email when sending any attachments.
Research Paper Assignment, part 2: Prepare an Initial Research Bibliography
You should have a minimum of 6 sources, which should come from the library, be it physical or online sources. Use the front search page of the CCNY library and/or Worldcat to make searches related to your topic and track down journal articles in the City College library databases, like JSTOR. The NYPL also has a great online database with access to many scholarly journals (you just need an account, which is free). Your secondary sources need to be scholarly, academic peer-reviews sources (not websites, blogs, general news feeds, etc., unless these are primary sources)
Here is the format for your bibliography:
- Please use subheads to separate primary and secondary source materials. Please also annotate any sources that you have read. In one sentence summarize the main point and goal of the author and how the source relates to your research issue/topic. For a helpful primer on annotated bibliographies, see here.
- Unavailable sources: Add a subhead at the end of your bibliography that lists key sources that you are not sure that you can obtain through the library or the interlibrary loan system (I may be able to help).
- Follow the Chicago Manual of Style for the citations. You can find information about the proper format for a bibliography here: documentation_guidelines_chicago
Due on or before: week of July 20 to 24 . Email me your bibliography as a PDF. Please make sure to include the captioned image of your work above your bibliography in the PDF to refresh my memory of your choice. Please name the file accordingly: lastname_firstname_bibliography.pdf Please remember to compose a proper email when sending any attachments.
Research Paper Assignment, part 3: Submission
Your final papers are due on or before July 28. Papers should be 5-7 double-spaced pages in length not including bibliography and images, in 12 Times font, with no extra spaces between paragraphs (paragraphs should just be indented). All citations should be properly footnoted using the Chicago Manual of Style.
Please submit your paper as a PDF and name it accordingly: lastname_firstname_22600_research.pdf Please remember to compose a proper email when sending any attachments.
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