[Uwhistory] Fw: Spring 2005 Labor Studies courses

[Cheryl Fisk]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Labor Center 
To: Labor Center 
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 10:19 AM
Subject: Spring 2005 Labor Studies courses


Please circulate

Labor Studies Courses: Spring 2005

Sarah Laslett: Director Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

Labor Research,  Political Science/History 457, T/Th 10:30-12:20



Students taking this course will learn how to do strategic research for real campaigns being waged by labor and social justice organizations. Strategic research allows organizers to choose better targets, plan effective campaigns, and leverage worker's power. We will also read about and discuss the social, economic, and political history of working class struggle in the United States in order to provide an historical context for the research projects. Those who do not wish to participate in the applied research approach will be welcome to do more traditional academic research projects on historical or contemporary labor topics. For the community projects, teams of two or more students will be assigned to specific labor or social justice organizations in the Seattle area. The research projects will have been set up in advance, and will result in the major paper produced by the students. Intro to Labor Studies is a pre-requisite for this course, but this requirement can be set aside at the instructor's discretion for students who have equivalent backgrounds.





Rick Bonus AES 151, Introduction to the Cultures of Ethnic Groups



Survey of the cultures of Chicano, African-American, Asian-American, and American-Indian communities of the United States. Each group's culture is examined in its isolation and

in its interaction with mainstream culture.





Paul Burstein SOC 360, Introduction to Social Stratification



This course is a graduate-level introduction to social stratification. It has two main, somewhat contradictory goals--to acquaint you with work on a wide range of subjects, and to show you how to evaluate major works in depth. The course cannot cover the whole field, nor can it provide the depth of background required to begin research on any specific topic. Instead, it should be viewed as an introduction to sociological theories, findings, and ways of thinking that will give you the tools needed to begin serious work on stratification. 

 



Jim Gregory HSTA 353, Class and Labor in American History



The history of workers and class formation form early industrialization to the present. Emphasizes the interaction of class with race, ethnicity, gender, and political culture within the context of American economic development. Explores the role of unions, labor politics, and radical movements.





Quintard Taylor HSTAA 313, African Americans in the West



This course explores re-1848 Spanish-speaking black settlers, slavery, post-civil war migration, buffalo soldiers, 19th and 20th century black urban settlers, WWII migration, the civil rights movements in the West, and the interaction of African Americans with other people of color. There is a particular focus on Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.








Daniel Jacoby BPOLST 593  Labor, Law and Social Insurance

 
Tumultuous markets are responsible for considerable social and economic insecurity.  Much of labor's struggle has been to find a way to reduce workers' uncertainty, sometimes through legal reforms aimed at establishing a social safety net, and sometimes through the rights of workers to join unions and associations to protect their own interest.  Often overlooked in this mix has been the role of markets themselves as a vehicle to establish social protection through the purchase and sale of insurance.  This class we look at the interplay between public, managerial, labor or market based institutions in the provision of security and independence to workers over the 20th century.  In this class we look at the ways law is used to support or challenge the creation of specific social institutions intended to ameliorate insecurity.  

 

The class will guide you in considering: new dimensions in the current debate about social security, ways in which women have struggled to establish non-discriminatory forms of social protection, and how public policy on regarding worker benefits shapes much of the continuing power struggle between labor and management.

 

The main texts for the class include:

 

1. In pursuit of equity, women, men and the quest for economic citizenship in 20th century America, by Alice Kessler Harris (Oxford, 2004)  

2. For all these rights, business, labor and the shaping of America's public-private welfare state, by Jennifer Klein (Princeton University Press. 2003) 

3. A primer on American labor law, 4th Edition, by William B. Gould IV (MIT, 2004).

 

Additional readings will provide opportunities to understand the distinctions between case law, statutory law and administrative law as it concerns social protection.  We will also have a chance to consider critical legal theory.

 

 

For more information, please contact the professor at djacoby at uwb.edu


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/uwhistory/attachments/20050316/0f42c889/attachment.htm