Explore the history of piracy and the various reasons for its decline over the centuries. Touch upon the major differences between pirates of yesteryear and the pirates we hear about in the news today. What about their lifestyles are similar or different? What are the main motivations behind their actions?
Examine the United States government's history of provoking wars and of staging tragedies as an excuse to start wars or to join in foreign wars. Study the sinking of the Lusitania prior to World War I, the bombing of Pearl Harbor prior to World War II, and the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin, which led directly to America's involvement in the Vietnam War. Connect these historical pretexts to more modern tragedies, such as the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11, which many believe were staged events in order to justify a "war on terrorism," but whose real objective was to secure foreign oil.
It is estimated that one in four college-aged women is bulimic, and countless others suffer with disordered eating patterns. Amplify this statistic by conducting your own research, exploring the trends of diet, body image, and disordered eating among women at your college or university through anonymous surveys and personal interviews. Study which factors might increase a woman's chances of having an eating disorder: race, major, athletic involvement, etc.
With the recent media storm over the controversial website WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, there is a renewed public interest in the presence of whistleblowers past and present. Whistleblowers are former public servants who have exposed highly sensitive, classified information to the American public, risking their careers, their credibility and sometimes even their lives to get the truth out. Explore the history of whistleblowers in the United States. Which ones were the most successful? Is there anything they have in common? Compare these public servants of the past to the present-day actions of media leak sources such as WikiLeaks.