Humanities Homework Help

Applying the Sociological Perspective to the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Assignment

In an essay, you will apply any FOUR of the components of the sociological perspective listed above to an analysis of any topic you choose that is related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sources

You will use at least FOUR sources to support your essay, including investigative journalism or academic sources.  

Investigative journalism involves deep, long-term examination of a problem.  You can find good examples of this in many newspapers, including those in languages other than English (make sure you translate titles for me).  Here are a few of my suggestions:

British Broadcasting Corporation

Democracynow.org

Gothamist.org

Le Monde Diplomatique

New York Times,

PBS Newshour,

Washington Post,

Le Monde Diplomatique,

Academic sources are books and articles that have been peer-reviewed, which means having been reviewed by people who have a background similar to that of the author.  You can find examples through the Bronx Community College library at https://www.bcc.cuny.edu/library/.  I recommend the following:

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)

J-STOR

PubMed (US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health)

Social Sciences Full-Text (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCOhost)

I will give you examples in class of how to do this.

Suggestions

1)Examining how society guides our actions and our thoughts

? You could write about the societal forces that lead people to get vaccinated or to not get vaccinated; to wear a mask or not wear a mask; etc.

2)Being attentive to patterns of behavior and thinking among people within society

? You could present statistics on employment and college attendance, exploring the reasons for the patterns; you could offer figures on vaccination rates from one state to another, probing the motivations for the differences; you could present data on debt – such as for rent on a dwelling – and examine the causes behind them; etc.

3)Keeping an eye open for multiple causes – political, economic, social, cultural – behind events that occur within society

? You could write about the multiple reasons behind which the virus has spread so extensively in the US, including the behavior of political leaders; the long-term failure to invest in public health; the strongly held belief in individuality; the failure by the federal government to protect essential workers; etc.

4)Paying attention to the influence of local, regional, national and global processes on life

? You could write about variations in responses to the virus from one US state to another; how school boards in some states (e.g., Florida) have defied the governor; how federal responses have differed from state ones, as in the case of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration versus Cal/OSHA (OSHA in California); etc.

5)Learning about the history of a society

? You could write about what was learned and forgotten about the pandemic that occurred one century ago; about the history of public health in the US; etc.

6)Identifying the extent to which social inequality shapes life

? You could write about the very unequal impact that the virus has had around the world, for example in the US, where Hispanics, African-Americans and Indigenous people have suffered more than other group from the virus; in Brazil, where Indigenous people in Amazonia have suffered disproportionately from the virus; in Mexico, where the poor have been infected at higher rates than affluent people; etc.

Format

?Write SIX pages

?Include an introduction, body and conclusion

?Double-space your sentences

?Write in paragraphs

?Use 12.0-point font of your choice

?Spellcheck – be sure your spelling is accurate

Introduction, Body and Conclusion

An introduction tells the reader what you will do in the essay, which in this case is to apply components of the sociological perspective to analyses of the covid-19 pandemic.  You may also want to include a real-life example in the introduction in order to capture your reader’s attention. 

The body presents your analyses of the four components.

The conclusion reminds your reader of the purpose of the essay and it may make suggestions for improvement.

We will discuss this further in class.

What is a paragraph?

Paragraphs are usually from five to eight sentences in length, but they can be shorter or longer than this.  They start with a topic sentence, which tells the reader what the paragraph will be about.  The sentences that follow then complete the task.