Due on Wednesday 6 pm

For this assignment, you will identify and explain a contemporary issue or program related to the contemporary social safety net (or lack thereof). For your final paper, you will investigate the historical origins of this issue or program.

You may examine any issue that you choose, but it must be sufficiently focused. If your issue is too broad, you’ll have a difficult time investigating its history in your final paper. For instance, “homelessness” is too broad. Instead, consider the housing crisis in expensive cities; the short supply of public housing; or homelessness related to drug addiction.

Narrowing your topic will likely require you to do some research. If you’re not sure whether your focus works, feel free to send me an email to test it out.

Again, you can examine any issue you choose. But if you’re stuck, below are a few broad themes to get you started. All of these themes require further narrowing:

The Criminalization of Poverty Public Housing Programs

Immigration & Poverty Civil Legal Aid

Labor rights Healthcare

Workplace health & safety protections Homelessness

Minimum wage laws Criminal Public Defense

Unemployment Workfare Programs

Basic Income/Full Employment Proposals The Earned Income Tax Credit

Poverty and disability Poverty & Environmental Issues

Food Stamps Hunger

Social Security Benefits Poverty & Addiction

Sources

For this assignment, you will need to cite at least four articles from reliable newspapers or magazines, such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The National Review, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, The New Yorker, or your local newspaper. Opinion pieces, information from social media, and articles from highly partisan news outlets are not acceptable.

DO NOT use material from random websites, including those of non-profit agencies, government agencies, or universities. Use material from established sources of journalism: newspapers and magazines.

You have full access to the The New York Times and many other reliable news sources through Brookens Library. If you need help finding articles or determining whether an article is reliable, please contact Pamela Salela, the Legal Studies librarian at UIS. You can find her information at the bottom of the module page.

Your articles must be cited using in-text citations or footnotes. You may use the formal citational style of your choice. If relevant, make sure to include page numbers.

Format

The first paragraph of your paper should briefly introduce the issue. Consider including a story that gets to the heart of the issue.

The body of your paper should discuss the issue in more detail. It should also clearly articulate how you see the issue relating to our class.

Your paper needs to be approximately 750 words in length, plus or minus 50 words. It should be written in 12-point Times New Roman font. Double spaced. One-inch margins all around.