Roots Paper

Produced in association with Visible Knowledge Project

Second Paper Topic: Roots Paper

| Consignment Form | Release Form | Examples of Roots Papers |

Your second papers are due after lecture on April 8. Choose one of the topics below and write a 6-10 page, typed, double-spaced paper. If you are depositing your Roots paper in special collections of Bartle Library you will need to hand in two copies of the paper and a consignment form. Your TA will discuss these mechanics in section.

Write a paper discussing your own ethnic roots. Trace your maternal and/or paternal forbears. If immigrant, where did they come from? What can you learn about their lives before migration, their motivations in coming, and their initial experiences in this country? Move beyond description and discuss what you can learn about your ancestors' changing relations to American society. What evidence is there of your forbears' acceptance or rejection of assimilation? If it seems appropriate, discuss the influence ethnicity has had on your own life.

If you are an immigrant yourself, please focus these questions on your own experience and write a first-person Roots paper.

Use as examples in thinking about your paper the five student Roots papers assigned in week one of the course, or the collection of Roots Papers published on this website. Very different kinds of papers work well; write and shape your paper to convey the richness of human experience you discover in the process of looking into your family roots.

Tape record a 60-90 minute interview focusing on the immigration experience of a Binghamton person or a SUNY-Binghamton student. In addition, write a paper describing and analyzing this person's experience. Address the questions noted above in connection with the Roots paper: what can you learn about the person's life before migration, her/his motivations for coming to the U.S., and her/his initial experiences in this country? What can you learn about your person's changing relations to American society? What evidence is there of her/his acceptance or rejection of assimilation?

In working on this second topic, you should draw upon the Oral History Interview Guide included on this website. The guide offers suggestions on how to prepare for the interview and on writing your paper. It also has considerable background material on immigrants in Broome County. For this assignment you must hand in a release form from the person interviewed and your paper.