Meanings & Realities of Inequality (BIS 445)
The question of who gets what (and how, and at what cost) is a fundamental one for all human groups. Another way of thinking about this is through asking: “Who belongs? Who belongs where? And who gets to decide?”
This course addresses these questions by describing and explaining the patterns and experiences of inequality and oppression within the contemporary United States. Typically, courses on inequality must examine life through the basic axis of sex, race, class, disability, and so on. We will do this but also look at it through the prism of specific institutions and systems (schools, criminal (in)justice; housing; work; health care) which order people’s lives into patterns that are often raced, gendered, and classed.
We look at this topic through a variety of sources including: social scientific journal articles and books, census bureau statistics, documentary films, narrative writing, mainstream news and entertainment media, and your own data collection. Some specific topics to be covered are: poverty, income inequality, welfare reform, race and sex differentials in life outcomes (e.g. education, health, wages, housing), hate crimes, and specific examples of privilege & discrimination based on class/race/sex/sexuality. While examples of inequality are endless and at times paradoxical, the central mechanisms maintaining these patterns can be seen as overlapping, and at times fairly simple. And so a central goal of this course is to simultaneously enable you to articulate the complexity and magnitude of inequality while also to critically evaluate and envision less oppressive ways of organizing our lives.
This course addresses these questions by describing and explaining the patterns and experiences of inequality and oppression within the contemporary United States. Typically, courses on inequality must examine life through the basic axis of sex, race, class, disability, and so on. We will do this but also look at it through the prism of specific institutions and systems (schools, criminal (in)justice; housing; work; health care) which order people’s lives into patterns that are often raced, gendered, and classed.
We look at this topic through a variety of sources including: social scientific journal articles and books, census bureau statistics, documentary films, narrative writing, mainstream news and entertainment media, and your own data collection. Some specific topics to be covered are: poverty, income inequality, welfare reform, race and sex differentials in life outcomes (e.g. education, health, wages, housing), hate crimes, and specific examples of privilege & discrimination based on class/race/sex/sexuality. While examples of inequality are endless and at times paradoxical, the central mechanisms maintaining these patterns can be seen as overlapping, and at times fairly simple. And so a central goal of this course is to simultaneously enable you to articulate the complexity and magnitude of inequality while also to critically evaluate and envision less oppressive ways of organizing our lives.
Death Rituals (BIS 490)
Death is a topic about which it is hard to have honest, informed, and culturally sensitive conversations. Yet, this general discomfort is eased when communities and cultures have common rituals, beliefs, and communication practices around death, dying, and grief. This course will offer a cross cultural examination of death rituals from around the world and highlight the work of the Death Positive movement – a progressive, young, women-led movement based in the West Coast of the U.S. including the Seattle region. At the same time as we will “normalize” death, the class will critically analyze (and seek to move beyond) existing dominant cultural models in the West
for talking about and living with grief – especially when death comes early as a result of violence, accidents, disease, and climate change.
Within these thematic areas, class topics also examine: gendered and environmental shifts in the national and regional funeral industry including the increase in women funeral directors; the emergence of death doulas; celebrity deaths; public grief; new “Green” technologies concerning human remains [e.g., in 2019 by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed into law the processes of alkaline hydrolysis (aquamation) and natural organic reduction (recomposition, or body composting)]; the social functions of ghost stories; necropolitics (the politics of how some people must live and die) and death disparities by race, gender, and sex, and other minoritized positions. Students will be expected to take field trips, contribute to weekly discussion in person and online; write weekly reflection papers, and produce a final academic or creative project.
for talking about and living with grief – especially when death comes early as a result of violence, accidents, disease, and climate change.
Within these thematic areas, class topics also examine: gendered and environmental shifts in the national and regional funeral industry including the increase in women funeral directors; the emergence of death doulas; celebrity deaths; public grief; new “Green” technologies concerning human remains [e.g., in 2019 by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed into law the processes of alkaline hydrolysis (aquamation) and natural organic reduction (recomposition, or body composting)]; the social functions of ghost stories; necropolitics (the politics of how some people must live and die) and death disparities by race, gender, and sex, and other minoritized positions. Students will be expected to take field trips, contribute to weekly discussion in person and online; write weekly reflection papers, and produce a final academic or creative project.
Regulating Sexuality: Activism, Policy, & Everyday Life (BIS 490/BCULST 593)
This course examines how, under what conditions, and for whose benefit “sexuality” is regulated. Sexuality is a capacious category, encompassing thoughts, feelings, identities, and actions; its meanings are both personal and socially produced. As such, the regulation of sexuality always intersects with existing social inequalities including that based on race, gender, and class, as well as across interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. Starting with foundational theoretical framings, the course will investigate the ways that activists and institutions name “sexuality” as a concern in relationship to heteropatriarchy, White supremacy, reproductive justice, and sexual health & rights.
Sex Work, Human Trafficking, & Social Justice (BIS 490/BCULST 593)
Human trafficking is one of the most highly politicized social problems of the early 21st century, with concerns about sex trafficking driving ongoing US-based anti-trafficking efforts. While researchers have offered nuanced and empirically rich understandings of the conditions under which force, fraud, and coercion exist in any form of labor (including sex work), public policies and popular discourse often conflate all sex work with human trafficking. Consequently, many legal, human rights, and global health researchers argue that contemporary policies do more harm than good for individuals who work in the sex industry regardless of choice, circumstance, or coercion.
This seminar reviews empirical research on sex work and human trafficking and address questions such as:
Students interested in issues pertaining to sexual politics, gender justice, trans and multi-racial feminisms, immigration and racial justice movements, global health, labor rights, human rights, cultural studies, policy studies, social justice vs. criminal justice, and the carceral state will find many points of resonance with the course materials. Students will have weekly assignments and will be asked to conduct a collaborative or individual final paper or creative project related to local laws & practices.
This seminar reviews empirical research on sex work and human trafficking and address questions such as:
- What is the difference between sex work and sex trafficking?
- Who are the players (and what are their agendas) in discourses around sex work and human trafficking?
- How can anti-trafficking policies best support children (individuals under the age of 18) in the sex industry?
- How do policies on sex work and human trafficking vary within the U.S. and between different nations?
- What is the difference between social justice and criminal justice approaches to eradicate human trafficking?
Students interested in issues pertaining to sexual politics, gender justice, trans and multi-racial feminisms, immigration and racial justice movements, global health, labor rights, human rights, cultural studies, policy studies, social justice vs. criminal justice, and the carceral state will find many points of resonance with the course materials. Students will have weekly assignments and will be asked to conduct a collaborative or individual final paper or creative project related to local laws & practices.
Sexual Politics, Culture, & Justice in Norway (Study abroad offered in 2018 and 2019)
Contemporary Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland) are frequently lauded as the happiest, healthiest, and most gender equitable places in the world. This course will hone its attention on one of these nations: Norway. In particular, we will study the ways that sexual politics, feminist thought, and movements for social justice shape contemporary Norwegian institutions, culture, and daily life.
The course is centered around the following questions:
Overall, the course helps students gain a deeper sense of how Norwegian (vs. American) cultural and ideological positions produce different logics of sexuality, the body, rights, personhood, and social & global responsibility. This course is held in Oslo – Norway’s capital and also the largest metropolitan city with a population of just under 1,000,000. Oslo is known for its many museums, parks, and easy walkability. It is also the center of Norwegian commerce, politics, and contemporary arts and culture. We will also take an excursion to the smaller town and more rural region of Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics.
The course is centered around the following questions:
- How does Norwegian state feminism impact the lives of people across a range of gender and sexual identities? How does it interact with the cultural and religious practices of new immigrants and cultures?
- What is the role of Norwegian media in reflecting and shaping narratives about sexuality, gender, race, and national identity?
- How and why is sexuality education in Norway so different from the US? What implications does this have for sexual health? (e.g. Comprehensive and readily accessible to children of all ages vs. limited and focused on abstinence and disease).
- How do Norwegian human rights legacies (resistance to Nazi Germany; home of the Nobel Peace Prize) inform responses to contemporary White Nationalist tensions across Europe and the U.S.?
Overall, the course helps students gain a deeper sense of how Norwegian (vs. American) cultural and ideological positions produce different logics of sexuality, the body, rights, personhood, and social & global responsibility. This course is held in Oslo – Norway’s capital and also the largest metropolitan city with a population of just under 1,000,000. Oslo is known for its many museums, parks, and easy walkability. It is also the center of Norwegian commerce, politics, and contemporary arts and culture. We will also take an excursion to the smaller town and more rural region of Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics.
