Research Project Assignment

Proposal (2 pages) due January 27

Paper (5 pages) and Presentation due:
Group 1: March 21
Group 2: April 9
Group 3: April 20

Many organizations exist today whose purpose is to promote human rights, combat injustice or, as Tracey Rosebud, curator of the Emmett Till Historical Center in Glendora, Mississippi says, engage in a “war against human wrongs” (personal conversation, December 19, 2011). As the leaders of these organizations know, every injustice in the 21st century has a past, and understanding that past is often a first step to creating a more just world for the present.

This semester, you will choose one form of injustice that exists in the world today, and one organization whose purpose is to combat that injustice. Using the organization as one of your sources of information, please write a 5-page research paper that explains:

o what is the injustice?
o who or what are its victims and who are its perpetrators?
o where and why did it originally arise?
o how did it come about?
o how far back can you trace its roots?
o how has it evolved since it first became an issue?
o how does the organization attempt to combat it today?
o how likely is it that the injustice will no longer be an issue by the year 2100?

Your paper must be a five full pages plus a bibliography. Plan to use at least 5 sources of information. Sources can include books, online articles, scholarly journals, statistical studies, the organization’s website, and interviews or personal conversations with members of the organiza-tion or people who are associated with its work. All cited or paraphrased material MUST be identified with in-text citations. Your paper must be written in 3rd person point of view.

Your proposal should be two pages in length and should indicate the issue and organization chosen, why you chose this issue, what resources you plan to use, whether and how you plan to personally interact with the organization, what obstacles you foresee in completing this project, and what help you think you may need. Your proposal may be written in 1st person point of view.

It is not required that you personally interact with the organization in order to complete this project; however, your paper will almost certainly be more effective if you do. Interaction can take the form of a personal visit, a volunteer activity, a formal interview or informal conversation with a member of the organization or someone who is associated with its work, an email dialogue, or even a phone or skype call.

If you need help raising funds to visit or vounteer for the organization in person, please let me know. Assistance is available for this kind of fundraising.

The following list is in no way comprehensive, but gives examples of the kinds of organizations you might consider:


Equality California
San Francisco, CA
www.eqca.org
This group is involved in a number of legal efforts to promote equality in California.

California NORML
San Francisco, CA
www.canorml.org
Marijuana rights organization (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
• 5 related initiatives collecting signatures for November 2012 ballot
• annual membership meeting coming up on January 21, 2-5pm in SF

The Somaly Mam Foundation
New York, NY and Phnom Penh, Cambodia
www.somaly.org
Dedicated to the prevention of human trafficking and rehabilitation of victims of sexual slavery.

ADAPT Vietnam
Milpitas, CA
http://test.adaptvietnam.org/
Dedicated to preventing trafficking of Vietnamese girls across the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

Marriage Equality
Mid-Peninsula, Bay Area, CA
http://www.marriageequality.org/ca-midsf-peninsula
Seeks to end discrimination against non-heterosexual couples in civil marriage.

Unmarried America
Glendale, CA
http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/
Provides information services for unmarried heterosexual and non-heterosexual couples.

Madre
New York, NY
http://www.madre.org
Advances women’s human rights by meeting urgent needs in communities and building lasting solutions to crisis.

Rights of Mother Earth
Grass Valley, CA and Oberwill, Switzerland
http://www.rightsofmotherearth.com/
A global campaign calling forth the universal acceptance of the rights of nature.

National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
Selma, Alabama
www.nvrmi.org
Voting rights are still unequally enforced in the US. This organization has a 3-day event planned for Spring Break week in March, 2012. Think big! If bringing the Civil Rights movement alive sounds exciting to you, it doesn’t get any realer than Selma, Alabama. I am hoping that a small group of students will want to attend the 3-day event together, and I will do all I can to help you organize your fundraising to pay for the trip.

Collective Roots
East Palo Alto, CA
www.collectiveroots.org/initiatives/environment/baylands
Supports a community based process designed to clarify and raise up the environmental agenda in East Palo Alto, esp. with regard to the Baylands watershed.

Save the Bay
San Francisco and Peninsula, CA
http://www.savesfbay.org/
http://www.savesfbay.org/peninsula-south-bay
Promotes the rights of animals, plants and people of the SF Bay to thrive together.

San Francisquito Watershed Council
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.sanfrancisquito.org/
Promotes environmental rights by encouraging urban planning and lifestyles that minimize the human impact on local ecosystems.

WorldVision India
Chennai, India
http://www.worldvision.in
Strives to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty and injustice. Emphasis on children compelled to work.

Immigrant Legal Resource Center
San Francisco, CA
http://www.ilrc.org/
Works with and educates immigrants, community organizations and the legal sector to continue to build a democratic society that values diversity and the rights of all people.

PETA
Norfolk, Virginia
www.peta.org
Animal rights organization (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)