THE RISE OF POLITICAL ACTIVISM IN NEW YORK CITY

Since Republican Donald Trump’s election as president on Nov. 8, New Yorkers have time and again taken to the streets to voice their opposition to his positions and policies. This project will aim to capture what appears to be a growing movement of political activism among residents of this heavily Democratic city, spurred by their outrage over Trump’s presidency. The project will be divided into several parts:

PHOTOS:

We’ll need at least one and preferably more photos of recent demonstrations in New York City. Do students in the class have any? If not, let’s see if there’s a protest coming up where someone can take photos. (ONE STUDENT)

TEXT INTRO:

The project with begin with a 250-300-word written introduction, which lays out the purpose and includes an interview with a political scientist who will add expert analysis of the topic. The student assigned to do this will contact and interview a professor at Baruch who works in this area. I know that Prof. Doug Muccio is often quoted in the media and should be pretty easy to talk to. As part of class discussion, we will draft a number of questions that should be asked. (ONE STUDENT)

INTERACTIVE TIMELINE:

Using the JSTimeline platform, we will create an interactive feature that shows every major demonstration that was held in New York City since Election Day. Students assigned to this piece will create a list of demonstrations with exact dates. Students then will find one Tweet, Instagram post or YouTube video that best illustrates what happened at each protest. Students will enter this information into a shared Google doc that I will set up. As part of class discussion, we will brainstorm events that should be included. (4-5 STUDENTS)

INTERVIEWS WITH NEW YORKERS:

The remaining students will each interview one New Yorker about his or her views on political activism since Trump was elected. As part of class discussion, we will come up with questions to ask each subject. Students also must take a photo portrait of the person they interview and collect the following basic information: FULL NAME, AGE, BOROUGH AND OCCUPATION. We need to collect a wide range of people, taking into account age, gender and race. (REMAINING STUDENTS)

ALL INFORMATION, FILES, PHOTOS, TRANSCRIPTS OF INTERVIEWS MUST BE BROUGHT TO CLASS ON WED., FEB. 8.