Discussion Prompt Please make sure to use specific examples from the course materials throughout your response, and cite all of your sources. Parts 2) and 3) deserve more substantial attention and length that 1), though 1) still matters of course! Your geographical imagination: Close

your eyes and think about ‘South Asia’ for 30 seconds. Outline the key images and thoughts that come to mind, as well as what forces/people/activities/etc., helped influence and form these ideas in your mind (if indeed you had some!) before you took Geog 340. Geographical imagination & reality: Write about a preconception about all of South Asia, or a specific country in South Asia, you had that THE

TEXTBOOK shed light on for you. Perhaps your preconception was a misconception,and you were surprised by the textbook. Or perhaps the textbook clarified or added specificity to an accurate preconception you had. Explain a) your preconception b) what you think the source of that preconception was, and c) how the textbook affected it, citing relevant pages. Watch Stephen Young’s case study (‘Microfinance Markets and

Inequality in India’) very closely. How did privatizing microloans have an effect on gender roles in this case? Do you think it is fair that banks and investment funds can make a profit by using microfinance institutions to lend to people who earn $2/day or less?