Project Proposal

Naomi Klein is an amazing woman whose work constantly touches the lives of people all over the world. I read her book No Logo when I was in high school and I’d like to use my semester project to write a paper on the ways in which her work has impacted people all over the world as she brought public attention to the devastating effects of Capitalism and corporate globalization and inspired cultural movements like Occupy and Whiteout.  

            To me, she is one of the most influential women of our time and there aren’t too many people that I talk to who know about her or her work. This project offers me the chance to not only shed light on her work and who she is, but also deliver some of her finer points to our class. The paper will be around 5-6 pages double spaced and will hinge largely on No Logo and Shock Doctrine. She has been changing the world one thought at a time with these works.

            I would like to use her works as a lens through which I interview my sister and my cousins. They are all compulsive shoppers. My sister spent an entire paycheck in one day shopping for clothes. This is a remarkable difference between us two, and a part of the problem lay with my cousins- the ones in which she grew up with, the ones who became the biggest influence in her life. I guess there is a sense of how a woman must act, just as there is a sense of how a man must act that they have all gotten from television shows, movies, and advertisements.

            I’d like to open their eyes by interviewing them, recording my conversations, giving them excerpts from Klein’s works, and interviewing them again a week later to see whether or not their views change. I am also interested to see whether or not their obsession of having the newest and highest brand name clothing comes from being an immigrant whose ideas of “Americanism” were drawn mostly from what was seen on television in Guyana. In order to present my findings the class, I will have an accompanying slideshow to go along with my paper.