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Your seminar leader should be able to read your portfolio easily: page numbers and clear labeling are essential. Faculty will hold a portfolio workshop on Tuesday, 25 February. 

Your portfolio should include the following components: 

1. Table of Contents

2. Essay 
Question: In this Unit we have studied the ''social world" as it has been constructed and deconstructed, imagined and re-imagined, both by Western societies and by non-Western societies across time. 

Western societies from the ancient Greeks to the present have assumed that their way of life constitutes a cultural superiority: in this triumphalist account, Western Civilization is punctuated by dazzling discoveries and human advancements. Over the course of this Unit, you have read much that would lead you to challenge that narrative. 

Write an essay in which you argue against the idea that Western civilization is a linear story of progress. To do this you will need to consider the dialogic relationship between the West and the rest of the world at different historical moments and the question of power: who has it, how it has been deployed historically, and toward what ends. 

You must use five theoretical texts (each from a different week) and four fictional or historical texts to argue your case. Make sure to explain the arguments made by the theorists you have selected and to explain how their claims support your arguments. Your essay should be 6 - 8 pages long. 

3. Concepts
Throughout this Unit you have been discovering, defining and analyzing various theoretical concepts to help you precisely and thoroughly understand and synthesize the material. For this section of the portfolio choose one of the following concepts as a way to focus in a more comprehensive fashion some of the ideas you have collected over the last six weeks: ·

• Civilization
• Globalization
• Hegemony
• Culture
• Resistance
• Class
• A concept of your own, with the approval of your instructor

As you have done before, develop questions that will help you pursue your thoughts and ideas. 

How has your understanding of this concept changed/developed over the last six weeks? Point to specific texts and historical "moments" that have helped to shape your understanding of the concept. How might the concept be used as a "lens" to assist you in focusing your pursuit of these texts and moments? (4 - 6 pages in length) 

4. Competencies
Choose two competencies, plus global perspective, and demonstrate in short essay (of two pages for each competency) how your understanding of that competency and your ability to apply that competency to the solution of intellectual problems has developed over the Unit. Select concrete examples to illustrate your changing fluency in your chosen competencies and discuss specific failures and successes in your exercise of these competencies during the Unit 

5. Postscript
Comment briefly (1 - 2 pages) on what you learned in the process of creating your portfolio