Cultural Experience Assignment | Culture
You will write 750 words or more (excluding MLA formatting/documentation) on the following topic:
Choose and attend a cultural experience you have not encountered before. This could be any of the following:
a religious service of a faith to which you don’t belong or haven’t experienced
an ethnic restaurant that serves a type of cuisine you have not tried before in a cultural setting
a festival or event that highlights some aspect of culture you haven’t experienced
a concert or other live performance of a type of music, dance, or other form of humanities expression (e.g., a lecture at a museum, a poetry slam, a live art demo, a street performance)
CORONAVIRUS ALTERNATIVE: Google a YouTube video or find a live streaming performance of a religious service, cultural event, or a concert of a type of music you haven’t attended before. Include the video or web page as part of your paper. This does NOT count toward the required class materials sources. You can also get takeout from a restaurant with cuisine you haven’t experienced before if you can see the inside of the restaurant and/or talk with the owner, an employee, or someone else you know who has experience with the culture.
Examine this cultural event in light of community, spirituality, or both as applicable and think about related materials from class. In what ways do you see the values being portrayed? What did you see, hear, smell, taste, touch? How did you feel? How did others actively involved experience the scene? How does what you experienced relate to what you learned in class? What does it teach you about humanities? You must have this experience during the semester. It cannot be a previous experience.
You must include at least three disciplinary sources from class materials (e.g., works of literature, history, theology, music). Use only sources from the course materials or an official website for the experience (e.g., a restaurant website or a website for a house or worship or an artist). You cannot earn a grade higher than C if you use unapproved sources.
Your essay must use MLA format and documentation, both in-text and works cited. Remember in-text includes framing, context, credibility, and parenthetical documentation (the latter only if it’s a print source). The works cited page must be the last page of your paper, NOT a separate file. The 750-word minimum does not include the MLA works cited. Refer to the sample MLA paper link and the in-text documentation file from the drama/film unit.
