Plunger

A great diversity of identity groups is represented at SU. However, research suggests that college students tend to interact most with students with similar racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender identities and sexual orientations. This assignment requires you to attend 1 campus/community activity hosted by or focusing on an identity group with which you do not personally identify. For example, if you identify as a White European American, you might choose to attend a campus event addressing police brutality against people of color. If you identify as a heterosexual person, you might choose to attend an event hosted by the LGBT Resource Center addressing concerns of LGBTQIA individuals. If you identify as a member of an oppressed minority group, you may need to identify unmarked in implicitly dominant-group-oriented activities. For example, consider the implicit expectations of the Greek system regarding race and sexual orientation.

A Cultural Immersion Plunger Experience: A cultural plunge is an individual exposure to persons or groups markedly different in culture (ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and/or physical exceptionality) from that of you, the plunger. The plunger is the student who is embarking upon the immersion. Cultural plunges have 4 major objectives:

1) To have direct contact with people who are culturally different from oneself in a real-life setting, which represents the target groups turf.

2) To gain insights into the circumstances and characteristics of the focal community

3) To experience what it is to be very different from most of the people one is around.

4) To gain insight into ones values, biases, and affective responses.

This assignment aims to expand students knowledge of and ability to work effectively with a wide range of members of vulnerable populations and helps them to understand the process for becoming agents of change against oppressive forces at work in society. Each student is responsible for completing this activity, but may have another student, friend, family member(s), etc., to accompany them during the events. All SWK/WGS students must participate because there will be no alternative assignments provided and no excuses accepted for not completing this assignment.

You must participate in the event from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist and take field notes during or immediately after the event. In a 57-page paper, analyze the experience using the ideas addressed in this course. Your paper should include: the name of the event, who organized and funded/sponsored it, and where it took place.

The paper should thoughtfully describe and analyze:

1) What was happening at the event?

2) What identity groups were represented and in what roles?

3) To what extent the activity was viewed by participants as addressing diversity, inequality, or oppression.

4) Finally, your paper should conclude with a personal reflection on your experience of attending the event.

Excellent papers will be clearly written and demonstrate your use of course concepts and self-reflection to understand the event in its social context. Papers must be your original work and use APA style citation and references. Please attach your field notes to the end of the paper. Please submit this paper in Blackboard prior to the due date. This assignment can be turned in earlier, if preferred. If you have any questions, please ASK.

Helpful Hints

Four Stages of Learning: Reflect on the first three stages – Precontemplation, Contemplation, and Immersion – prior to each cultural event. Answer each question meaningfully in your paper.

Precontemplation

What is your current view/perception/prejudice/stereotype of this group?

How did you acquire your current view/perception/prejudice/stereotype of this particular group

When, specifically, what age or age range did you begin having this viewpoint of this group?

What portrayals do you see in the media of this group?

How does the media portray this group? Provide examples.

Contemplation

What attitudes, messages, and/or perceptions were conveyed to you from your family, friends, media, and/or other institutions about this group?

Which group (i.e. advantaged group or targeted group) does your chosen cultural group belong? What evidence supports your choice?

How did/does the media currently impact your viewpoint of this group?

What makes you either sympathetic or unsympathetic to this group? Why?

What is your level of exposure to this group prior to this assignment?

Immersion

What forms of stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination did you observe and/or discover that affect this cultural group?

What forms of oppression did this group identify as having the most profound effect on their lives?

What attitudes, messages, and/or perceptions shifted or did not shift while completing this activity?

What did you experience before and after completing this cultural immersion activity?

Emersion

How has this experience personally affected you (i.e. mentally, spiritually/religiously, emotionally, physically, socially)?

How has this experience reinforced, challenged and/or changed your previous view/perception/prejudice/stereotype about this group?

How does this experience affect your future career objectives or life focus when encountering people who belong to this group?

Continued Cultural Work

To work with someone from this group, what are 2 other activities you need to engage in to increase your cultural knowledge and responsiveness towards this group?

What are 2 other activities you can do presently to either challenge your previous misconceptions or reaffirm your conception about this group?

Conclusion

Reflecting on your view/perception/prejudice/stereotype, what key concept or theory learned earlier in the course applies to your view/perception/prejudice/stereotype or the shift of your view/perception/prejudice/stereotype of this group?

How did the activity challenge or affirm your views, perceptions, prejudices, and/or stereotypes about this group?

What was the most defining thing you learn about yourself by completing this cultural event?