Writing the Research Paper

My Research Topics

The top two topics that interests me most for potential research are, the history of women’s roles in jobs, positionings and their limits in America, also early settlements in Caribbean islands, such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, to gain more information on who resided in those islands before europeans conquered. What attracts me about the history of women’s roles in America, is the idea of women not being paid equally as men, but also learning more about how women work together, what are some issues that they have and what are some things they are really strong at. As to the early settlements in the caribbean islands, is a way to find out more information about the background of these islands and what they are composed of, what can the people from their relate to, is a way to bring people together and i would like to have valid data on the topic. I’m already familiar with the many protests and movements that women fought in order to gain rights such as voting, situation that came a long way and should be celebrated. One thing i know about natives in the caribbean is that both europeans and africans had stepped foot there, after conquering and enslaving communities. However what i would like to find out who was settled there before the conquering, and what happened to them and what was their culture and tradition like, kind of like the Inca Empire in Machu Picchu before the europeans. For female roles, i would like to find out what are women’s strengths and weaknesses in working together, also what are the situations that prevent women from being equal as men, all through there organismic differences. All in all i think my topics are specific enough, even though they are really broad ideas and arguments behind them, because i talk about specific people and places and specific ideas in which im looking for information on. In order to find my data, i would want to use text books and articles based on time periods with examples of perhaps laws that existed or still exist that refer towards men or women only. Also look at interviews and documentaries of people giving their experiences and opinions of women in the workplace in general and perhaps compare that to men. Also for my second topic, i would look for any primary pieces of evidence that could work towards finding out about the cultures in early settlements of these islands, and documentaires of the history about the before and after of the conquerors era. I would start looking at the library and also documentaries and maybe interviews.

During our class on Monday, we were going over the ideas of different research topics. I myself didn’t speak up about it, but the topic I would’ve talked about would be knowing the chemicals that are being used in the foods we eat. I myself do watch what I eat especially in a time now where genetically modified ingredients are highly present in a lot of our favorite foods. Since the population is ever more so increasing, scientists have been cloning and creating ingredients due to it, however it’s not the real deal. The regular chemicals that are found in our foods also isn’t good as well. Other continents such as Asia and Europe usually don’t sell American food products because of the ingredients listed in their produce. Even the cereals are completely different across seas than what we’re more accustomed to buying and eating here.
A question that is on my mind is what other ingredients are companies putting into their foods? People are getting sicker by the year, as well as cancer rates rising due to what we’re eating as well too. This is more seen here within the United States rather than any other part of the world, so what are we doing wrong with our foods? Why are people still eating it knowing the risk they’re taking? Even the FDA takes years for them to regulate certain ingredients into effect, but what ingredients are these that are sickening the United States population?

My research Topic

In Monday’s class we had a chance to discuss with our partner about a topic that interest us for our research paper. The topic I chose was the hardships for immigrants (Jamaicans) to adopt to the United States culture. Also, the hardships of immigrants to fit in a find a job. My partner and I discussed how it would be difficult to get certain jobs without having your papers, even though u learn an probably have all the knowledge for a certain career you still have to go through the process we have here in America , for example , having your high school diploma , a certain amount of college credits and experience.

I have several questions about my topic. A question that I’ve always been curious about is, how many immigrants actually get a good paying job when coming from a different county? How many are finically stable and living the American dream? What is the process they have to go through in order to get a career? Why don’t they have the same opportunity as us Americans do if they are in America? How much of the US population is actually made up of immigrants?  In order to find these answers I’ll have to do deep research and look at immigrants statistics to help me find out more information.

A method I’ll take to find out information is looking for data on https://www.bls.gov that website will help me gather data on immigrants labor statistics. During my partner and I discussion in class she said she wanted to learn more about the hardships of finding a job for an immigrant so that’s definitely a piece of my paper that I’ll go more in depth with.

The great thing about this topic is that I could get a lot of research from family members even some of my close friends, also, news articles and more.

The topic I would like to speak about focuses on the Italian Mafia here in the United States. Now, when speaking about the Italian mafia there are a lot of different areas that can be covered. Many families were formed in different parts of The United States and that period or “Mafia Era” went on for many years. One person that I would like to write about would be the infamous Al Capone along with his Chicago gang, but I wouldnt focus on him. I’d like to understand the different ways in which the mafia’s actions and crimes affected society, and also how the authorities viewed and treated Italian immigrants because of the war against the organized crime groups.

I am really interested in this particular topic because I grew fan of the 1920’s-1960’s and the Mafia when I was in middle school. In my social studies class, we learned and had discussions about the Sicilian mafia, the origin and how strong they were here in the United States of America. Aside from the fact that these were very dangerous years, I really liked the way things were. Small things like the way people lived and dressed, the way vehicles and buildings looked just really caught my attention.

The positive thing about this theme would be that there are alot of resources I can use. There is alot of information to pick up. I can easily get books, or look up a New York Times article from the 1930’s. Since this was such a significant period in history, all of this information is out there. If I had to pick another topic, I may go with something going on in our world today, and it would most likely have to do with Donald Trump and his new tantrums. I’m not really sure if I’d like to go deep into present day politics, but this is just an idea.

The research topics that I have selected to be in in my final two are, Is New York City graffiti still booming like it was in the 70’s? and How did the Italian mafia impact the U.S. government? The reasons why I have selected these two topics is because one I find these topics to be quite interesting and two because both these topics had such an impact on this country that some people don’t even realize it. Now, I do know quite a bit on the history of graffiti but not in its entirety, I have a lot of questions for this topic but my main three are what do graffiti writers want others to see from their art pieces, how has graffiti changed over the past 20 years, and lastly has graffiti ever created positive opportunities for a writer? As for my topic on the Italian mafia, I don’t know as much information. But, I do however, know that Italian mafia families were well deep into organized crimes, being involved with crimes such as prostitution, drug dealing, money laundering, extortion and many more. A couple of questions I would like answers for are, is the Italian mafia still in existence, has the mob ever done something positive for the U.S., and does the mob still have ties to the American government?

I believe I can find my data regarding graffiti, maybe in some books that the library offers but I can also gain information from actual graffiti writers that I personally know. Gathering information on the mafia I think my best bet would be online sources, books from a library and if I’m lucky talking to someone who has connections to the mob. One last source that can be used are official documentaries that different networks or movie companies created.

Alejandro Canelas

ENG103

Dr.Kitana Ananda

09/26/17

  The first Research topic that I would like to look further into is Gentrification in NYC. This issue is one that I personally see around NYC and in all honesty it frightens me if it were to affect my neighborhood. I would like to explore the history of communities of color being displaced all due to capitalist agendas. I know that columbus Circle used to be an area where a Puerto Rican neighborhood once thrived and now the area is a tourist destination and shopping district. This little known fact makes me think of the recent Puerto Rican and Dominican displacement of neighborhoods like Williamsburg which was once referred to as “los surez” by locals. This issue has a historical component and i would like to explore if this simply is an economic issue or is it racial genocide? Or is it both? I would like to tie in housing issues and employment issues into the research as well. I would like to also explore on-going African American displacement in places like Bushwick, Bed Stuy, and Crown Heights. There is a historical component to this that I would to connect to in recent history.

  My second research topic I am considering is the grossly overlooked contribution of LGBTQI people of color in the sexual liberation movement. Specifically I would like to point out how Trans gendered individuals were and are the catalyst of much of the freedoms experienced today. Often times the narrative tends to be centered around a White gay male’s perspective and I would like to explore how the Stonewall riots became such a white washed moment in history. I would like to even point out the recent issues that occurred in Orlando and how many Black, and Puetro Rican/Domincans died and their ethnicity was overlooked during the discussion.

The research topic that interests me the most is the small village of African-American land owners living in what we know as Central Park today. There are several reasons I find this topic so interesting and they are: I want to know in what years this community established itself, I want to know what their daily lives were like while living as a community, what kind of work were they doing, what did their homes look like, what did they do for recreation, did they have citizens rights, how was this community viewed by the larger majority (Whites) at that time, and I want to know what happened to these people after their land was taken from them.

What I know so far is that the existence of the village called “Seneca Village” remained unknown to the public during the first 150 years of Central Park’s existence. And that if wasn’t for a group of archaeologists and historians who call themselves the Seneca Village Society  pressuring the city to reveal the existence of Seneca Village in the year 2001,  we likely wouldnt have known this settlement ever existed. I also know that the land was seized due to prominent white residents of NYC feeling envious of the natural parks in London, and so they brought their concerns to the mayor in year 1854 and the mayor complied.  Mayor Ambrose Kingsland used the law of eminent domain to seize the land.

The data on this topic is going to come from the findings of the Seneca Village Society.  I am going to do more research on their website as well as attempt to visit them and see what artifacts they dug up.

The research methods I plan to use will be interviewing someone from the SVS, reading any article written by them, or another acceptable source, and possibly going to Central Park and asking one of the employees where could I find out about this topic.

The first topic I am very interested in is how life changes for immigrants, how it is adapting to a new culture. Also how the culture differs from theirs. My interest in this topic is because I moved to New York from Saint Vincent, and it was a complete culture shock for me.

My second topic is how immigrants are treated. Immigrants are accused of taking away jobs from Americans. Though many of the jobs that immigrants do are jobs that Americans hate and complain about doing. (Jobs like babysitting, janitors, maids, live in jobs)

My third topic is how immigrants get involved in gangs. They become Americanized and do things that they would not do back in their country. (This can also go with the first topic). Many of them are just trying to survive their neighborhoods and fit in.

Most immigrants from the Caribbean when they come to America, they want to go to school and get an education; because that is one of the most important thing to Caribbean people. Sometimes many cannot afford to go to college because it is too much money and they cannot afford it.

Article 1: Light, M. T., Miller, T., & Kelly, B. C. (2017). Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990-2014. American Journal Of Public Health, 107(9), 1448-1454. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303884

Article 2: Ornori, M. (2016). Educated and Staying at Home: Asian Immigrant Wives’ Labor Force Participation in the U.S. Journal Of Comparative Family Studies, 47(4), 463-481.

Article 3: Blasco, J. (2017). Immigrant Families Behind Bars: Technology Setting Them Free. Vanderbilt Journal Of Entertainment & Technology Law, 19(3), 697-720.

Article 4: De La Rosa, M., Dillon, F. R., Sastre, F., & Babino, R. (2013). Alcohol Use among Recent Latino Immigrants Before and After Immigration to the United States. American Journal On Addictions, 22(2), 162-168. doi:10.1111/j.1521-0391.2013.00310.x