The Body Project
Each professor will have their own unique versions and requirements for the Body Project, but the general outline of the common assignment is as follows:
- the proposal - identify the embodied experience you plan to study; outline the techniques/strategies you plan to use to study that embodied experience; address ethical considerations related to your proposed research design
- research notes and fieldwork report - collect information about your embodied experience and record them in your research notes; write a discussion essay that summarizes your research notes, makes connections to concepts covered in the course, and critically reflects on the research process
- contextual analysis - examine your embodied experience from its historical and cultural contexts from multiple perspectives, including different academic disciplines/fields; this component may be requirement for your discussion essay or a separate assignment like an annotated bibliography or slideshow
- cultural artifact - after each individual student completes their own individual phenomenological research project, you will join a team (or your entire class might work on one major artifact like a documentary) to create a cultural artifact; the cultural artifact makes connections between the different embodied experiences studied by each team member and needs to make a substantive observation about embodiment
- the Bodies Exhibition at the Core Convivium - cultural artifacts from each focus section will be put on display during the Core Convivium at the conclusion of the fall semester; the project must stand on its own, which means someone doesn't need to be there to explain how the artifact makes connections between the different embodied experiences (i.e. you will need to provide a title card and a written statement of purpose)
- Articulate conceptions of “embodiment” and the role they play in the construction of knowledge (in the proposal, research notes and discussion essay, cultural artifact, and Bodies Exhibition)
- Analyze socio-cultural expectations about physical difference in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and ability using a variety of media and genres (in the proposal, research notes and discussion essay, contextual analysis, and cultural artifact, and Bodies Exhibition)
- Situate cultural representations and practices related to the body in the multiple contexts of the Western tradition (in the contextual analysis)
- Research and analyze ethical debates about the modification and manipulation of bodies (in the proposal, discussion essay, contextual analysis, and Bodies Exhibition)
Smith, David Woodruff, "Phenomenology", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/phenomenology/
Author Information
Katheryn Wright, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Core Divison
Champlain College