INSTRUCTIONS Final Analytical Paper

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Instructions on ANALYTICAL PAPER OPTION : In an analytical paper of 7-8 pages d ue Thursday of Finals week , please analyze your own/your family’s experience or other primary data like online oral histories, or primary textual materials (films, fiction, poetry, archival materials, etc). The object is to use ways of looking (theoretical concepts or frames) from the readings to analyze or make sense of your primary materials. You can choose to do an individual paper or a collaborative paper with one more student. Please include the full name(s) of the author(s) of your paper. Everyone in your team, will receive the same grade. Please submit via Assignments on Bruinlearn. Y ou are encouraged to engage in the analysis of primary materials for your research project. Primary data can include texts, music, film, documents, or ethnographic interviews and observations. As long as they constitute the object of your examination, they are primary. Secondary data is when you must rely on other people’s collection and interpretation of it in newspaper articles or scholarly articles. I would encourage you to analyze existing oral histories, literary texts, films, music , videos, documents, and articles as primary materials. If you choose to do autoethnography (of yourself and family members), please read the “Me Search” article by Vinh Nguyen under Additional Info and Resources on bruinlearn to consider issues of methods and ethics. Please acquire consent (oral consent is ok) and protect interviewees’ privacy by disguising their names/identities. Methods of qualitative analysis of texts, music, documents, and/or interviews and observation are interpretive in approach. To guide your interpretation and analysis, it is often necessary to apply certain conceptual tools from your theoretical tool bag. Theories and concepts we learn from class readings and lectures will help in devising your research question as well as guiding your analysis. The “data” you work with may also turn around and question the validity or political efficacy of theories. Your paper will likely need 3-5 academic sources, in addition to primary data, or in addition to sources that give you secondary data. At least one (if not all) of those academic sources should be from your class readings. You could use a concept of a theoretical framework from the author(s) to analyze your data. Or you could use your data to critique, or modify the claims of the selected author(s). Your chosen theoretical framework will, to a large extent, determine the research design or the research questions you will attempt to answer with your data. In your paper, you should discuss /explain relevant issues and concepts, describe the kind of data you have collected, make a case for your analysis of the data, and support your argument with clear examples from the data. The format should follow an analytical research paper: the intro previews the theoretical framework, the argument, and the data; the body explains the theory/theories, and makes your case by supporting each point with data that contributes to the overarching argument; and the conclusion pulls together parts of your argument into a summary. Please aim for innovation in the analytical argument, a s well as as good support to make such argument compelling through the us e of theoretical tools and empirical /primary data. Please watch for grammatical and spelling mistakes . G ood writing including clarity, organization, style, grammar and spelling will affect how effectively you convey your argument. Please edit your paper before turning it in.

Please cite paraphrases or quotes from readings or outside sources. You can use in-text citations or footnotes in any major established style format (Chicago, MLA, APA). Please also include a list of sources cited at the end of your paper. You may follow any of the major style formats as long as you do it consistently throughout the paper and list of sources. Your paper should be 7-8 pages typed, double-spaced. This paper is . I do not have the flexibility to accept submissions past that date. You may select one of the projects suggested below (or variations thereof). You could also come up with one of your own, in which case you could consult with me. Some Suggested Paper Projects : 1. Family Data and methods : Look up relevant oral histories , or find secondary data. One depository of oral histories is the Vietnamese American Oral History Project at UCI accessible through https://sites.uci.edu/vaohp/ . You may choose to work on just your own family. Combine interviews with observations recorded as field notes. Apply interpretive analysis, including narrative analysis, to your data. Consent and protection of privacy apply, even if it is your family. Sample theoretical framework and research question(s) : Kibria argues that age and gender tension in the Vietnamese immigrant/Vietnamese American family could be explained by the interaction of the patriarchal structure of the family and the new strategies employed by families to improve their socio-economic position in the US. For example, Kibria claims families often “patch-work” from different kinds of resources brought in by different members. Economic contributions by women and older children in the family allow for more contestations between husband and wife, parents and children. Do you find gender and age tension in your ethnographic case(s)? Would you explain the presence or absence of such tension using Kibria’s “patch-working?”Or would you contest Kibria’s explanation? What is your explanation? Support your argument with descriptions and interview excerpts. 2. Manicure or comparable Vietnamese-operated business. Data and methods: find relevant oral histories or find secondary data. One depository of oral histories is the Vietnamese American Oral History Project at UCI accessible through https://sites.uci.edu/vaohp/ . Apply interpretive analysis to your collected data. Sample theoretical framework and research question(s): Kimberly Hoang points out dynamics of racial triangulation at work with many nail salons. Do you find similar or different dynamics? Or you may choose to address such questions as: How does the global division of labor feed the enclave economy and allow clients from other groups to construct images of immigrant workers’ class and ethnicity? Or how do ethnic practices in terms of flexible accumulation like the expansion of manicure services to far-flung places across the US reconfigure racial relations or ethnic presence and ethnic spaces geographically, socially, and economically?

3. Racialization and racism (can be linked to deportation) . Data and methods : Examine either admission practices, police practices, or criminal-justice practices, or any other set of practices and/or cultural works, to think about how race is produced or perpetuated. You could rely on secondary data (newspaper coverage, other academic articles, etc.). You could also examine, or supplement with, cultural works as primary texts (novels, films, memoires) to think about relevant narratives and discourses . Please be careful with your interviewees (if you choose this method) , and again consent and privacy apply. Sample theoretical framework and research question(s): Many class readings can be relevant to this topic including the ‘Critical Race’ and ‘Deportation’ week. You may choose to address questions such as how does race get produced, perpetuated, or altered by a set of practices connected to some societal institutions (employment, healthcare, education, policing, criminal justice, welfare, housing, media coverage, popular culture, etc.) . You may choose to focus your inquiry into racialization and criminalization on deportation. You can also address community activism against deportation. 4. Community politics. Data and methods: select event(s) or issue(s) around which community mobilization, contestation, and/or political activities take place. Collect data (available interviews, Y outube videos, print and/or audio-visual materials issued by community, news sources, etc.). You could for example collect information on either the establishment of the Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster, or initiatives to adopt the South Vietnamese flags in public functions, or controversy such as over sister city relations between cities in the US and Vietnam. If you talk to anyone, consent and privacy apply. Sample theoretical framework and research question(s): Quan Tran, Nguyen-vo, Yen Le Espiritu examine commemoration practices in the Vietnamese American community to explore issues of memory, history, ethics and politics. The film “Saigon, USA” and Thuy Vo Dang and Long Le explore the community’s anti-communist ideology. How would you explain such community politics? What does such politics ‘do’ to advance or not advance certain goals such as social justice? Would you propose a different approach to politics in the community? Support your argument with data and theoretical discussion. Alternately, you could examine practices by or relating to the refugee (Vietnamese in comparison to Iraqi, Syrian, etc.) as a site of critique (critical refugee studies). Many authors mentioned above as well as Malki, Espiritu , etc. would be relevant here. 5. Electoral Politics: Data and Methods: Look up records for local and state votes by Vietnamese American elected officials. These are public domain information, and you have a right to access them. You can also look up these events as they have been covered in newspapers and other sources

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Analytical framework and research question(s): How representative are Vietnamese American elected officials of their communities when the community vote is crucial to their election? You will have to devise your own categories of analysis. For example, you may want to divide up issues by categories of social justice (within which you may further subdivide into economic and racial equality), symbolic politics or homeland politics, etc. You will set the standards of how to judge if these elected Vietnamese American officials represent their communities (or segments thereof). You could of course choose to argue against such an investigation which is based on certain assumptions of representation. Are there issues whereby either the majority or segments of the community should not be represented and why? Alternately, you could examine the potentials for coalitional politics with allied communities, either given the voting records or statements made by Vietnamese American candidates and elected officials or other community practices/organization/mobilization. Christian Collet, Thuy Vo Dang, Eric Tang could be relevant here. 5. Cultural productions. Data and methods: Apply visual/textual analysis to cultural productions like literary texts or shows, music videos, visual arts. Sample theoretical framework and research question(s): Authors like Duong and Pelaud, Timothy August, and Long Bui analyze cultural productions to shed light on issues of empire, history, memory, community politics. The kind of questions you might ask include: How is homeland narrated in these cultural works and how do these narratives relate to life outside of Vietnam? Do these cultural productions generate community? Do they generate a kind of transnational identity and presence? Choose your question(s) and focus on an argument in relation to your selected data. Use excerpts (from films, short stories, novels, memoires, etc), and detail analysis of excerpts to support your argument. As an alternative, you could focus on the production of diaspora and diasporic subjectivities and connections in these cultural works (or other kinds of activities). Catherine Nguyen and Vinh Nguyen , in addition to those authors on history, memory, community, and culture will be relevant here. 6. Memory and History. Data and methods: Apply visual/textual analysis to community commemorative events, texts, films, or debates about the Vietnam War in comparison or in relation to the Korean War, The Gulf War, or the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria. Theoretical framework and research question(s): Le Espiritu, Quan Tran, Long Le, Long Bui, Nguyen-vo, Thuy Vo-Dang and others that talk about how history is retold from different angles. How do you see memory being enacted and with what implications? Are remembering and forgetting being organized in these practices or cultural works? Do these efforts complement or contest one another? To what ends or in which configuration of power? Support your argument with data.

Grading Checklist: 1. D id you do this work? 2. If you used AI, what was your contribution and how do you assess that integration between machine processing and your own thinking? In both cases, did you put in enough time and effort (contemplation and execution) to warrant your points? 3. D oes your essay contribute something new to our understanding of the primary material or some issue, or does it just mirror/repeat what other scholars have said? 4. I n the introduction of your essay , did you preview the concept (s) , the primary materials (texts, films, other cultural materials, empirical data), and the overarching argument of your entire essay? 5. I n the body of the essay : -H ow well did you explain the concept(s)/theory(ies) with both paraphrasing and direct quotes? Is it enough of an elaboration on your understanding of said theory for the purpose of your argument? Did you explain how these concepts or theories create a cohesive framework for your analysis of the primary materials? -Did you provide paragraphs that contribute to a detailed analysis of the primary materials? In case of cultural works, did you practice close reading of form and content? In case of empirical data, does each piece of data support your point that contributes to the overarching argument? Do these details that you analyze illustrate the theoretical concepts you use? Did you explain how your detailed analysis and the concepts connect? Your detailed analysis can challenge the academic concepts/theories, but you’d need to show how. -D id you integrate all your claims into a coherent and cohesive overarching argument? 6. I n the conclusion: did you sum up well that integrated argument? 7. Overall: -I s the body of the essay organized into paragraphs with a clear thesis sentence for each paragraph? -D id you check grammar and spelling? -D id you practice good citing/referencing, giving credit and credibility to others’ ideas that you use? Did you follow a style manual in how to cite, and how to compile the list of reference s at the end?

Grading guidelines: An essay may be perfect and effective but not creative in generating new ideas. The first may earn the equivalence of an A, but an essay that generates new ways to think about the topic at hand could earn an A even if it’s not perfectly written. Please assign numerical points at the bottom of your essay after you’ve used the checklist to evaluate your own work . The maximum for the final is 4 0 points. If you want to keep in mind equivalences to letter grades while you assign points, then it’s something like the following: 37 -40 = (A’s) 3 3 -36 = (B’s) 29-32 = (C’s) 25-28 = (D’s) Your reader and I reserve the right to look over your work, comment, and assign a different numerical score if it appears to us that you have not seriously worked to engage with the assignment, or have not adhered to principles of academic integrity.

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INSTRUCTIONS Final Analytical Paper

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