Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

This discussion is about understanding the lifestyles of our human ancestors during the paleolithic--from the first anatomically modern humans over 300,000 years ago until the development of agriculture around 10,000 years ago. This time period--around 300,000 years--is far longer than any of our cities, countries, languages, clothing styles, traditions, or other activities have been around. In terms of subsistence, this 300,000 years is similar to what we think our ancestors before Homo sapiens did. Living in small groups, moving around the landscape, looking for food through foraging and hunting: these are arguably the human "normal." Taking college classes and eating food from the store is truly bizarre behavior in the long view.

In the reading for this week, Fuentes talks in some detail about the development of compassion in our species, and ties this to creativity. He asks (on page 100) can we remain creative within ever larger communities?

For this week, I want to ask the related question: 

"Can humans remain compassionate in ever larger communities?" 

You can use info from the book or from other sources to support your position, you can even take a position that compassion isn't necessary--but whatever position you take please do support it with at least one citation from somewhere. Also reply to two of your classmates.

Reply to classmate 1:
I believe all humans carry an ability to be compassionate. Unfortunately, people tend to close off their compassionate sides as a result of life experience. An article written on empathy and compassion by Loran Nordgren says "Our research shows that people who have gone through difficult experiences tend to be the harshest critics of those who are struggling or unable to cope. In this case, another old line is perhaps more applicable: familiarity breeds contempt."  The article continues to examples of bullying. Someone who has been bullied in the past tends to have more care and compassion for someone they see being bullied. It also states that a person who has not had this experience has a difficult time feeling empathetic towards the person. 

I feel living in larger communities, like the city of New York, also plays a role in a person's compassion. One article suggests that living in larger groups like a city has a detrimental affect on a persons mental well being and ability to be compassionate towards people you don't know. "Prevalence of psychiatric disorders is significantly higher among people living in urban areas, says a meta-analysis of 20 pieces of research conducted over the past 35 years. Specifically, people in cities suffer from mood disorders and anxiety at a disproportionately high rate." Another quote from a psychologist says, "compassion is not an automatic response to another’s plight; it is a response that occurs only when the situation is perceived as serious, unjust and relatable. It requires a certain level of awareness, concern and empathy." Just as was said in my first paragraph, a person's experience or ability to relate to a situation helps with their compassion. According to those articles and quotes, it is hard for someone living in a city with millions of people who also has a higher likelihood of mental instability to feel compassion towards others, especially if they do not know the person and does not make any personal contribution to the well being of that person's life. It is much easier to feel compassion for your own parent suffering from an illness or your child or direct family member. Sometimes people even feel more compassion towards their own pet than to people they do not know. 

There are occasions where people have shown large amounts of compassion in or towards a large community. September 11th. Our country has never been more united or compassionate. Hurricane Katrina and Harvey. The wildfires in Australia. Multiple people displaced from their homes and in need of care and just love. These are the times that people have come out and shown overwhelming amounts of compassion and empathy to large communities. This relates to the part of the last quote that the situation is serious or unjust. 

Despite everything I have said above, I still believe that compassion is a vital factor in our society and communities. It is part of how we foster and grow relationships and a sense of community, I feel, is a necessity to our existence. 

https://qz.com/452497/great-bosses-have-empathy-but-not-for-everyone/

https://positivepsychology.com/why-is-compassion-important/

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190816-is-city-life-really-bad-for-you

Reply to Classmate 2:
I believe that all homo sapiens sapiens have the ability for compassion and show it in all kinds of ways. I also believe that overcrowding in large cities has detrimental effects on mental health. Compassion and self-preservation are two sides of the same coin. But this is also impacted by how our lives are changing.

Compassion is shown on a small scale by taking care of a family, by checking on your elderly neighbors, and by letting someone go ahead of you at the grocery store especially right now. On larger scales, compassion can be shown in the example that Fuentes stated, "In 2005, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of people went to New Orleans as volunteers." (86) This is a perfect example of compassion and we have shown this repeatedly for people that we don’t know. People give blood, donate money to charity, food banks, and animal shelters.

The ugly side is that people can have a dark nature. A perfect example of this would be hoarding of toilet paper that is happening right now. In addition, Jacoba Urist’s article stated, "Research, Kopec says, has shown that crowding-related stress can increase rates of domestic violence and substance abuse." This means that in a city like New York City, where the population is 1.8 million people with at least 2 per household and very small apartments, and to have affordable apartments they want to make them smaller, people get on each other’s nerves because they cannot relax. There is no space for a person to enjoy. Even in tight apartments and cramped space people form small groups, such as, my block, my street, my neighborhood. Fuentes stated, “ But as communities grew and sense of identity become associated with specific places (stone-gathering sites, hunting grounds, certain river edges or coastal caves ), feeling of “us” and “them” could grow stronger.” (99) This can lead to violence against other areas. Small towns usually have less crime not only because there are less people but because people can have space between each other. The people are also of one town. The more people in one area can cause stress and more stress can cause more mental damage.

So I do believe that people have compassion, firefighters from America volunteered to risk their lives to go to Australia this past year to help put out the wildfire, families donate their holidays at food banks to make sure someone else has a turkey dinner that otherwise would not happen, and strangers have helped car accident victims even when it may have put their lives in danger. I just also believe that a person's ugly side can take over when that person cannot decompress from stress or other environmental issues because there is not space. People still tend to form tight circles and everyone else is on the outside, a stranger, and is not important. All these things are related and circle back to each other.



Works Cited

“The Beauty of Standing in Line.” The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional, by Agustin Fuentes, Dutton, 2017, pp. 85–100.

Urist, Jacoba. “The Health Risks of Small Apartments.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 8 May 2018, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/the-health-risks-of-small-apartments/282150/.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

1. Your Select  country is： Greece
2. Collect information on the macroeconomic situation in your country from 2008 the present. Your group will be expected to use at least six sources of information. Please include a copy of your source list with your report.

      Relevant information includes: 

    a. Background on the country’s economy: employment mix, primary     industries, major exports and imports, key trading partners

    b. Economic performance over this period: Key indicators over the period include  GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, government surplus/ deficit,     trade position.

    c. Identification of the fiscal policy followed by the government of this country over the period/ If it changed over the period, what were the changes? 

    d. Identification of the monetary policy applied during this period. If it changed over the period, what were the changes?  

3. Produce a document (not to exceed 4 pages, excluding list of sources) that includes the following: 

    a. Analysis of the country’s macroeconomic conditions over the period, from     2008 to the present.

        i. How can you explain what happened to this country economically     over the decade? What challenges did this                 economy face? (Please do not focus solely on the current world health and economic crises, but rather look at the full period since             2008. ) What are the key factors that have driven macroeconomic results? 

        ii. Apply the basic IS/LM framework as part of your analysis. Please             develop simple graphs to illustrate intended and actual results of             fiscal and monetary policy. 

    b.  Summary of your expectations with respect to the country’s likely direction: What is likely to be the country’s economic trajectory over the coming 12 months? 

    c. Explanation of your view about the viability of the Eurozone: which countries benefit from its current structure? What challenges does the     Eurozone face going forward? 




====================Prior to starting this written assignment, please read the following articles to familiarize yourself with the European Union and the Euro Zone======================================

https://www.economy.com/support/blog/buffet.aspx?did=D8A2232F-AAC5-43D0-AD70-2F737DD7261D

https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/09/world/europe/eurozone-fast-facts/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/business/international/eurozone-economy-q1.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/24/the-europe-union-has-bigger-problems-to-deal-with-than-brexit

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Please provide a 500 word essay of the security aspects and difficulty of printing money. How exactly is money produced? What are the many different techniques used to provide security? What kind of press and why? etc..... This should be an original "reaction" paper in your own words. I will not accept any papers that have similarities to others. I expect a word document not shared on google Doc. A 500 word essay is one page single spaced or two pages double spaced in a 12 point font.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Students will write a proposal for a psychoeducational/counseling group with a specific population (e.g., young boys/parental divorce, adolescent girls/bullying, college students/test anxiety, older adults/retirement planning).  This proposal should be written in APA format and the body of the paper must be five to six (5-6) pages in length (This does not include title page, abstract, resources, references).  Group proposals must be approved by the instructor prior to initiating group practicum.  Submit your group proposal on blackboard and bring in a hard copy for the instructor.  In addition, your proposal should include the following sections.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Prepare a 750-1000 word essay (approx. 3-4 pages) that addresses the following question:

How do we know whether sexual relationships represented in historical records were consensual, coercive, loving, or meaningless? What can we know and what can we not know about the history of sexuality?

To answer this question in an essay, drawn from at least one of the following assigned readings as well as the book, A Global History of Sexuality:

Fay Yarbrough, “Legislating Women’s Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Social History 38:2 (2004), pp. 385-406.
Matthew S. Hopper, “Slavery, Family Life, and the African Diaspora in the Arabian Gulf, 1880-1940,” Sex, Power, and Slavery, pp. 167-181.
The goal of this assignment is not to summarize the readings, but rather to analyze the information you gather from them in order to answer the prompt. Take the points made in lecture about what we can know and what we can’t know about the history of sexuality, and then identify other examples from the readings. Finally, analyze these case studies or examples in support of your argument. How have historians tried to learn about the history of sexuality in these case studies or examples, and to what extent can they know or not know how the individuals in history experienced sex or sexuality?

Your paper should contain a thesis/argument in the introductory paragraph. You should develop this thesis through the rest of the paper with supporting evidence.

Format: If using a word processing application like Word or Google Docs, make sure your paper is double-spaced, with 12-point font and one-inch margins all around. Please include your name, the date, and your paper’s title. If possible, use Chicago Manual of Style footnotes or endnotes to give citations. For information on Chicago style, see: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/documentation/docchicago/ (Links to an external site.).  Given the fact that we are all working on different digital platforms, you may opt to copy and paste your paper directly into the text box if you cannot upload one of the accepted document versions. If you copy and paste your paper, be sure to use in-text citation or manual endnotes for citations as footnotes will not appear. You must cite your sources in some way.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Since we know that children are less likely to succeed if their most basic needs go unmet and the research on poverty now tells us just how devastating these impacts can be for families, in the short-term and the long-term.  What do you think the reasoning behind why the government at both the state and federal levels failed to make real changes to government policies dealing with poverty that would benefit working poor families which would move them from poverty to a stable environment?

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

The final research paper or project represents the cumulative effort of your work this semester. It should be 1200 words, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, standard 1 inch margins on all sides.  There should be a cover sheet that is NOT part of the page count and page numbers should start on the second page and be located in the lower right hand corner of the paper.  This final paper will demonstrate your proficiency in applying concepts relevant to the theories we have been studying to a topic of your choice pertaining to sexual and gender identities.

Your project should reference a minimum of one (1) course readings in an application of one or more theoretical conceptsTherefore, the paper will have a total of three (3) sources.  Proper research methods using the FIU library website will be discussed in class.

Examples of possible concepts to consider/integrate:

the sex/gender binary
birth of the “homosexual”
discursive constructions of sexuality
regulation, power, and knowledge
diagnosis, confession, and “truth”
medical science and sexuality – the construction of “normal”
historical context and its role in definition
passing and trans narratives
intersectionality – race/class/gender/sexuality
recognition/visibility of sexual and gender identities (bisexuality & the closet)
queer politics and the policing of “deviant” bodies and sexualities
pedophilia, psychosexual development, and polymorphous perversity
stereotypes and cultural representation
performativity, drag, and gender identity
Stonewall and gay liberation
queer and trans challenges to the legal system
sodomy and marriage laws
lesbian feminism, separatism, and trans identities
materiality of the body
cyberidentities (sexual and gender)

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Culturally, the United States places great value on individual liberties, arguably more than any other nation on earth. This creates a natural tension between what may be beneficial for the general population and what may infringe on individual rights.  Working within a group designated by your professor, develop a consensus statement supporting or opposing one of the following issues:

Mandatory Vaccination

Define the societal benefit or burden and whether current practice is insufficient, about right, or overbearing. Remember this is not about individual opinions, all perspectives must be supported by appropriate scholarly research and consider opposing viewpoints.
The consensus statement should be 5-10 pages in length (body only, not counting the cover page, abstract, references, or any attachments) and conform to APA style.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Assume that tomorrow Congress passes a law outlawing racially segregated neighborhoods, arguing that such neighborhoods were economically and socially retarding the growth of minorities in particular and the country in general. Pick a side and argue that Congress made a big mistake.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Assignment: Please investigate the following traditions and create two (2) short encyclopedia-type articles on the events. 

1) "El Salto del Colacho"  (15 pts.)

2) La Tomatina  (15 pts.)

REQUIREMENTS: Aspects that you must address in each of the two entries are as follows:

what the event is
where it is celebrated
who celebrates it
when it is celebrated
why it is celebrated (it is religious, etc.)
the historical background of the event (where did it originate and how has it evolved)
how it is celebrated (what are the events that take place every year)
important symbols, attire, music, and/or terminology (what would a foreigner need to know in order to fully understand it)
find a video on YouTube or elsewhere that you feel best portrays each of these festivals and include the link.
ADDITIONAL EXPECTATIONS:

First and foremost, do not simply lift material from websites and insert that as though it were your own work. That seems like an obvious thing, but it happens every time we do projects and I want to be clear about that. I can and will submit any plagiarized work to the office of Academic Integrity and you will receive a zero for the assignment. Please do your own work.
You should visit at a minimum three (3) sites to ensure that you have a complete and accurate view of the tradition.
With that said, I am granting you a great deal of flexibility in terms of where you look for information and how you present it. As long as you paraphrase and selectively use the material you find, you do not have to cite each thing nor do you need to use MLA documentation.
A simply list of Sites Consulted at the end will suffice (and is required).
Your project should be organized and should contain headings and subheadings.
You are expected to write in complete sentences, with proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. (This is not a bulleted-list Powerpoint presentation. It should look more like an encyclopedia article.)
You are expected to incorporate images that reflect the material you are presenting.
You are encouraged to add links to video clips that you feel are relevant.
Word files and pdfs are safest because I know I can open those. If I cannot open your file, it is your responsibility to resubmit the assignment in another format. If that happens I will let you know.
NOTE: There is a Project-Based Grading Rubric in this folder that will outline how these are graded.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Use the following as a guideline.  You NEED TO USE QUOTES from the book to give  a stronger argument, I will take off points if you do not use quotes. How many quotes?  enough for a STRONG argument.  Give the page numbers in()s  behind what you quote.
“Why Did She Do It?”Why the Rage that she seems to feel?
Please Present your paper using the following:  Part I, Part II, etc. 
PART I:  Early Childhood: The Lack of Early Social Bonds
Discuss in detail all of her early childhood experiences that have an influence on her future behavior. Go into detail here. Place of birth, parents, socio economic status, etc.  Wuornos does a good job explaining. Detail here.
PART II: Discuss here the influence of her teen years, pregnancy, marriage motherhood, criminal arrests. Once again detail is needed.
PART III:  Discuss here all the deadly crimes (murders) that Wuornos committed, during her days of “prostitution” work. 
A.  Explain why she selected the various victims?
B. The various modus operandi .What were the various methods Wuornos used when she killed her victims (how did she kill her various victims) Have you any explanation here of her choice of method for the different victims? 
A. She (Wuornos offered no apologies nor held any remorse for the deaths that she caused.
a.  Explain why she felt this way.
PART IV: Discuss here the bisexuality and her relationship with Tyra Moore. Discuss the relationship between the two womyn and the influence that the relationship had.
PART IV : Discuss the Media influence on the Wuornos trial. The various factors that the media selected to “showcase” regarding the trial. The various factors that the media selected not to present.
PART V: Discuss the reason(s) why YOU think that Wurnos decided to stop all further appeals.
PART VI: HERE YOU ARE TO DISCUSS THE COURTS DECISION –THE DEATH PENALTY. DO NOT GET EMOTIONAL HERE, JUST PRESENT THE FACTS ACCORDING TO YOUR READ OF THE BOOK.
PART VII: WAS JUSTICE SERVED?  WHY?  WHY NOT? 

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

For this discussion, I'd like to see you dig into how we learn gender: both what are the mechanisms and what are the messages.  Remember what the word *gender* means, because it's quite different from the word *sex* even though nearly everyone uses the two interchangeably.  Feminists have long asserted that there is fundamental distinction between sex and gender. Why do you think that this distinction has been of central importance to feminism? What purpose does it serve and why is it of continuing significance?

Our readings for the lessons argue that "Gender is a practice in which all people engage; it is something we perform over and over in our daily lives."  What does it mean to say that gender is a performance and why might it be useful to understanding how we all perform our gender? How do we perform femininity and masculinity in today's society - what are some of the contemporary norms associated with femininity and masculinity? Can you give examples of the various institutions that teach and maintain these norms... how are these gender norms passed on from one generation to the next?

What are the limitations of masculine and feminine scripts? You might also want to explore the socially constructed traits associated with femininity and/or masculinity. How do these limit and/or provide opportunities for women and/or men? How have notions of appropriate feminine behavior changed over the last century?  What are the consequences of a strict dichotomy between masculinity and femininity? 

(Approx 750 words & 2 direct quotes & 1 weblink & 1 image)