The Infamous "-ism" Project (Due October 26 & 27)

A Historical Examination of Injustice
Investigating the social, political, and economic ideologies that gave rise to injustice:

Goal: students will conduct research into one of the ideologies below to gain a better understanding of how it led to the rise of injustice. Students will then write a short, informative paper detailing their research and present their findings to the class.

Sources: While the internet is a seemingly endless font of knowledge, only a small percentage of the information available comes from a credible source. Therefore, students must submit an annotated bibliography attesting to the authorship and origin of their information. Every student must use at least two (2) books and no more than two (2) web-sites.

Potential Topics:
Feudalism
Nationalism
Colonialism
Rationalism
Industrialism
Socialism
Capitalism
Fascism

Research Questions:
1. Provide a definition of the ideology based on how it was implemented. (Avoid a simple dictionary-definition. Instead, synthesize your own definition.)

2. Identify the leading proponents of the “ism” and how they came to develop or embrace the ideology.

3. Explain the geographical and historical context: when and where was the ideology prominent? What circumstances was the ideology intended to rectify?

4. What problems or injustices were brought about as a result of the ideology? Who were the victims of those initial problems?

5. What is / was the Church’s response to the “ism”? What might the Church posit as the fatal flaw of the ideology? How does it fail or go wrong?

The informative essay should be approximately two pages in length and utilize APA format for citations.

The presentation should be approximately 5 minutes in length, introduce students to the main ideas of the questions listed above, and contain one technology component.