I’m working on a Social Science question and need guidance to help me study.

This assignment will enable you to read an entire contemporary “ethnography” about migration processes in the United States, and to put the topics and ideas presented in it in conversation with other course materials. (An ethnography is the written account produced by an anthropologist about cultural processes.) To give you a sense for how an anthropologist might approach a particular issue in displacement, you will select one of the ethnographies below, and complete a book review that will incorporate ideas and concepts from the class. This will demonstrate your ability to put together ideas and information from multiple sources.

For the paper, you should address the following:

• Brief, overall summary of the book- main topic and main argument(s) being made by the author
• More specific discussions of chapters if necessary, supporting points being made by author and how they connect to the main argument, evidence used to support the argument
• Respond to the book and synthesize its ideas with lesson content and other readings
  • Do you find the arguments/evidence to be compelling, and why/why not?
  • Do you agree, disagree, and why?
  • What was your big take-away after reading this book?
  • How do the themes, ideas, or concepts in this book relate to themes, concepts, or ideas in lesson content and/or lesson readings?

I encourage you to work together with classmates who are using the same text, and to collaborate on thinking through the analysis and synthesis aspects of the paper. However, each student will need to turn in their own paper, and the papers will go through Turnitin for similarity review. In other words, please do your own work on the final paper. The book review should be 750-1000 words.

Select one of the following ethnographies for the book review (some of these may be available through the library, others may need to be ordered):

Besteman, Catherine. 2016. “Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine.” Durham: Duke University Press.

Castañeda, Heide. 2019. “Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families.” Stanford: Stanford University Press.

DeLeón, Jason. 2015. “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail.” Oakland: University of California Press.

Holmes, Seth. 2013. “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States.” Berkeley: University of California Press.

Stuesse, Angela. 2016. “Scratching Out a Living: Latinos, Race, and Work in the Deep South.” Oakland: University of California Press.

You will be graded on the following:

• Content: The extent to which you summarized the text and the main points/arguments being made in the text question, your use of relevant sources from the lessons to synthesize and support your discussion (readings, course content, web pages), and the clarity and coherence of your response
• Mechanics/Form: This includes writing organization, and use of correct grammar, spelling and punctuation (Spell check is your friend!)
• Critical Thinking: Includes demonstrating creative and innovative thinking, inquiry, and analysis, and ability to synthesize information