Homework is Due!

I have been putting off the papers that I have due at the end of the quarter but now it’s time to face those things! I have been dreading doing those things because September seemed so far away and I didn’t want to think that I will be graduating college so soon. On one hand I can’t believe how fast it flew, how I will miss everyone and just having the responsibilities of a student but on another hand I cannot imagine having to spend another year in college!

For my Sociology class I have 2 papers due. One of them is called Sociology of Disaster and the other one is called Sociology of Film. In the Sociology of Disaster paper what we have to do is go to the Natural Hazards Center website, Familiarize ourselves with the mission of the center, go to "quick response program" and learn about how social scientists can participate in disaster research at the center, choose two reports that addresses subjects that interest you, and answer the following questions:

• What research question (or problem) did the researcher choose to study?
• What research methods (data gathering tools) did the researcher use to collect data?
• What were the findings of the research?
• How significant were the findings in contributing to our understanding of disasters?
• This assignment has to be 2-3 pages typed and submitted by September 1st.

On the second assignment we have to do things a little differently. First we have to pick 3 movies that we want to choose from and pick our number one choice of the movie we want to analyze. We then have to e-mail those choices to the professor and he lets us know if they are available or not. From there we have been given different choices of questions that we can address. Here are some choices:

• What is the central social and cultural issue that the film presents?
• Are the issues raised by the film relevant to American culture today?
• Does this movie illustrate sociological concepts, themes and ideas? Which ones and how?
• How is the world depicted in the film? Is it a world of war, love, conflict, laughter, rebellion, exploitation, hate, etc.?
• How does this movie portray the individual? Is he or she placed within the social and cultural context? How about the historical context?
• Are social roles a factor in the movie? How about gender roles?
• Is social class a factor? How about social mobility?
• What types of groups exist in the film? Are there divisions? Are there attempts to bridge differences?
• Is social integration a theme in the movie? Are individuals alienated from work, family, community and/or society?
• Other sociological themes could be about anything that we have learned in this class. Examples include family life, war, the future, growing up, growing old, romance, crime, bureaucracy, race, religion, work, social movements, etc

This assignment is due September 6th which is right before the final week for school. I hope that I have given you a good outlook of what it’s like to be a Berkeley student. As you can see the assignments are a lot of work but they are fun. You don’t have to research boring things that don’t interest you instead you get exciting topics that are actually interesting.