Annotated bibliography

Annotated bibliographyENGL 100 –– Research Essay Prompts
You are encouraged to develop your own topic on a social justice issue that interests you. Please
take this as an opportunity to research something you care about! If you are having difficulties
developing your own topic, here are some prompts:
In a 2019 article in Now, Vivek Shraya laments that the commercial success of marginalized
artists often depends on portraying suffering and trauma in their work, asserting: “The more the
pain of people from marginalized groups is repeatedly and consistently consumed as a form of
‘entertainment,’ the less potential these images have to effect necessary social change.” In “The
Case Against the Trauma Plot” (The New Yorker, 2022), Parul Sehgal critiques fiction that uses
trauma as a lazy shortcut for character and plot development. Alicia Elliott complicates Sehgal’s
argument in “The Case FOR the Trauma Plot?” (CDC Arts, 2022) by asking “If … trauma is
what happened to Indigenous women like us — what still happens to Indigenous women like us
— how can we truthfully tell our stories without including it?” Do you think that trauma
narratives represent important realities for marginalized readers, or that they reveal an unhealthy
appetite to consume the suffering of marginalized people? You may choose to consider this
debate in general or by analyzing a book or television show that depicts trauma. Either way,
please include academic, peer-reviewed sources about trauma and/or its fictional depictions.
The attention that the Black Lives Matter movement has gained on social media has prompted
conversations about whether social media is an effective channel for activism. Is social media
crucial to getting the word out there, or does it simply prompt performative allyship?
When Jared Leto, as a cisgender, heterosexual man, played a transgender woman in Dallas
Buyers Club, there was controversy about whether the role should have been given to a trans
actor. To what extent do you think that roles depicting LGBTQ2+ characters should be reserved
for actors who personally embody these identities? Is a big part of acting the ability to play
characters who are different from oneself? Or is it unfair to let straight, cisgender actors play
trans roles? Do trans actors get cast in cisgender roles?
Developing countries tend to be the most strongly impacted by climate change and the least able
to afford its consequences. To what extent do these unevenly dispersed effects of climate change
exacerbate existing social and global inequalities? What are some of the most productive
measures that can be taken to support developing countries in grappling with climate change
and/or to reduce the process of climate change?
What are food deserts? Health professionals often discuss the need for people to be educated
about nutrition, yet sometimes there are literal geographical barriers to obtaining healthy food. In
Canada, Indigenous people are more likely to live in food deserts, or experience food insecurity,
than non-Indigenous people. What kinds of problems does this present and what can be done?
In The Promise of Happiness, Sara Ahmed notes that “Migrants are increasingly subject to … the
happiness duty” (130), which is used “as a way of binding migrants to a national ideal” (133).
Do you think that there is greater pressure on immigrants to be happy, model citizens? If they are
held to a higher standard than the native-born population, is this fair or unfair?