Final Project

 

We have dedicated the semester to an exploration or areas of the New York City waterfront.  It has served as a means of investigating aspects of the city's cultural, industrial, socio-economic, military, medical, and ecological evolution.  (The waterfront as porthole to history.)

 

One of the myriad reasons for considering the urban waterfront is its frequent role as host to various marginalized aspects of society; i.e. people or material considered rough or unsavory by "polite society", whether for reasons of poverty, race, sexual orientation, illness, drug addiction, disability, or trade. (The waterfront and the outcast.)

 

The New York City waterfront is a littoral space; one that reveals so much about the vagaries of civilization, including its most ostracized members.  It has been and often still is a kind of twilight zone between the known world and the vast deep. Perhaps it is for this very reason that it has haunted and inspired writers and artists throughout the years. (The waterfront as creative mind-scape.)

 

I invite you to reflect on the above three statements and brainstorm a topic for research and presentation.

 

Here are the specs:

 

Your presentation may be in the form of a video, work of fiction, screenplay, collection of poems, work of music, Powerpoint or prezi presentation.

 

Presentations will take place on two dates.  Attendance is absolutely mandatory on both of these dates.

 

• Your presentation is a full 10 minutes in length (you will be timed)

• Your presentation is carefully structured and thoroughly researched

• Use carefully chosen high quality images (not distorted)

• You cite your sources on the last slide of your presentation

• Your delivery is clear (Rehearse!!)

• Do not read off the screen!  Use only bullet points on your visual presentation.

 

Source Requirements:

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• Direct Experience: field research, museum/historical society visit, or interview.   

• Research: use the Library Databases, educational institutions, government, or non-profit organizations.

 

 

Choosing a topic

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Choosing a topic involves finding a subject that is both of personal interest to you and in some way related to the course.

 

Managing a topic

Managing the topic requires some thought.  Many topics are too broad to be discussed in ten minutes.  A topic may be investigated from many different angles.   

 

• Maritime trade in New York Harbor 

• New York City rivers, canals, and creeks

• The role of New York City in the Revolutionary War

• Waterfront industry (specify)

• The history of a particular ethnic group (i.e. Italian, Korean, Dominican, etc.)

• Rockefeller and Standard Oil

• History of Disease and Public Health in NYC (choose a particular era)

• The New York City water supply

• Race, ethnicity and the waterfront

• Historic leisure and recreation on the waterfront

• Artists and the waterfront 

• Marginalized waterfront

• Garbage in New York

• Native flora and fauna

• Inhabitants of the New York estuary

• The literary waterfront 

• Prostitution and human trafficking in NYC

• Another topic of your own creation

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HON1000C-FinalEval.docx