For this essay, students are asked to choose a topic from under the heading of "human bodies", and write a short research essay. This essay will draw on peer review research and course themes. The essay will be analyzed for its historical contexts and meanings. 

Goal: There are two goals for this assignment: 1) to gain experience in analyzing primary and secondary sources, and 2) to explore an area of interest that deepens the student’s awareness of the interconnections between the human and non-human world, between humans and the rest of nature 

Structure: Your short essay should include: • 4-5 pages double-spaced • An introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion • Full sentences • Clear paragraphs and sentences • Bibliography and footnotes (Chicago Manual of Style) 

Content: Your short essay should include: • Basic information on the image chosen (date, place, author, type of image: photo, poster, etc.) • A description of the image • A description of what the image represents – what themes and underlining issues exist within the image • A description of how the image relates to particular themes within environmental history in a particular geographical and temporal time frame. 

Human Bodies: How to behave in certain spaces • Who is allowed in certain spaces • What notions of health are implied? (Bodily disposition, disease, nutrition, exercise, outdoor versus indoor activities) • What notions of gender, sexuality, class, and racialization are implied? • What are the bodies relationships to the environment around them? How are people using, contemplating, fighting nature? • How are bodies represented? • What changes over time? 

FOR EXAMPLE-

THE PICTURE CAN BE LIKE THIS