Some Term Paper Ideas and Resources

 

Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?: each of the essays in this book is an argument piece, suitable for response. Most focus on female genital mutilation as the most striking “test case” but some address broader issues, for example, Halley’s essay, “Culture Constrains” deals with the consequences of maintaining communal property rights in religious groups and Indian tribes.

Distributive Justice: the selections from Rawls, Nozick and Singer are each excellent philosophical discussions that you can critique for your term paper.

Diversity and Integration: the articles by Appiah and Baber each argue against “diversity.” Each is suitable for critique.

National Sovereignty and Human Rights

• Nationalism (Stanford Encyclopedia) at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nationalism/ includes extensive bibliography, annotated selected bibliography and links.
• Cosmopolitanism (Stanford Encyclopedia) at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmopolitanism/ includes a lot of historical material but also reference to some contemporary discussions.

Women and Religion

• Nussbaum Ch. 3 “The Role of Religion” discusses the dilemma of reconciling religious liberty and sex equality, focusing mainly on India. Much material, including legal cases—somewhat discursive but includes philosophical argumentation.
• Islamic Law (Sharia) and the role of women. See, e.g. the discussion of Sharia-based penal codes at the Amnesty International site at http://www.amnesty.org.au/women/report-nigeria.html
• Indigenous religious movemente, e.g. a way into the literature on Mungiki is at http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/index-bfba.html

Preferential Treatment and Protective Legislation: search for essays on the following topics

• Affirmative action
• Maternity leave
• Child care
• Protective legislation

Some Useful links

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy with its search page at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/search.html is the best resource available for research on any philosophical topic. Each article includes extensive, current bibliography; most also include useful links. Articles are philosophical and include surveys of the arguments pro and con. All material is updated regularly, most within the last 2 years. Most are models of good philosophical writing—to be emulated.

International Development Ethics Association at http://www.development-ethics.org/ Not much here but it might be worth poking around. For links, check out their links page at http://www.carleton.ca/idea/newsletter/links.html

ID21 at http://www.id21.org/ is “is a fast-track research reporting service funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It aims to bring UK-based development research findings and policy recommendations to policymakers and development practitioners worldwide.” Ideas and source material rather than philosophical argument papers.

Cultural Survival website at http://www.cs.org/ devoted to “promoting the rights, voices and visions of indigenous peoples”