Cultural Self Portrait Assignment Essay
Order ID:89JHGSJE83839 Style:APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Pages:5-10 Instructions:
Cultural Self Portrait Assignment Essay
Compile your self-portrait into a single document. You should include:
- A working definition for culture supported by references to the course texts and activities to date. (1-page)
- A reflection on how you recognize your own culture. (3-5 pages.)
- *Upload your work as a single document. *
*Please see the page on the Website for the references and materials. *
*Typical American Culture
*African American*
Some helpful information from Class
Regarding Culture
By the end of the week you will sum up for yourself a succinct, personal working definition for culture drawn from this week’s texts, posts and discussions. You will include this in your cultural self-portrait.
A key part of your cultural self-portrait will be your personal “cultural iceberg.” You will create it this week after viewing the YouTube video “Culture Identity Model” at the end of this introduction. Which aspects of culture from the blog posts, the texts and the discussions do you think belong in your personal “iceberg”? Which aspects do you consider to be above the surface (explicit aspects of your culture)? Which ones below the surface (implicit aspects of your culture)? Which ones are at the boundary? This week and next, continue to think about what should be included in your image. By the end of Week 2 you will incorporate the iceberg into your personal cultural self-portrait. For each aspect you add to your “iceberg,” ask yourself what evidence you find for it in your daily life.
So let’s get started thinking about cultural identity:- by viewing the Cultural Identity Model video found in the week readings and resources section.
Regarding Identity
This week we continue to explore the cultural self by noticing events in our daily lives, and by analyzing the concept of “identity.”
A primary source for “seeing” our own cultures is our lived experience. In the course of any given day, we experience many reactions and emotions that, when analyzed, can give us clues to our culture, values, expectations for roles and behavior… in short, our culture. This week notice and “capture” some of those reactions, and sharing them in the Week 2 blog. When you read other people’s posts, how familiar or unfamiliar are their experiences? (Note: Be especially alert to detect positive events (e.g., comfort, amusement, solidarity), which can be very subtle and even pass unnoticed… since they are “just normal.” Negative events (e.g., anger, annoyance, confusion) are easier to capture since they tend to be strong and obvious—they attract our attention because they are not “normal.”)
How do we define our “self”? What makes us who we are? How do we develop our “identity”? In the YouTube video at the end of this introduction, Taiye Selasi suggests that we can find answers to these questions by identifying the relationships, rituals and restrictions we experience as “normal.” She proposes that instead of the simplistic (but not always “simple”) question “Where are you from?,” we should answer the question: “Where are you local?”
For a more academic perspective on identity, we will read and discuss two texts:
Brown University’s “Diversity Kit, “You will need to scroll through the document to find “Part II: Culture.” As you read pages 1 through 13 of Part II, assess your definitions for culture and your cultural “iceberg” from last week. What would you like to add? Remove? Move? The activities on pp. 6 and 7, and pp. 10-12 of the reading are optional for this course, but may be useful for thinking about your cultural self-portrait. (The full, three-part Diversity Kit is a valuable resource you might want to read more fully on your own. It is available for free online.)
Identity Formation in Globalizing Contexts By Christine Higgins: Access the eBook at the library and read Chapter 1 (Links to an external site.).