Course Details

Course offered Winter 2016

HONORS 397 B: Continuing the Global Challenges Conversation: Care, Poverty and Citizenship (SSc, DIV)

HONORS 397 B: Continuing the Global Challenges Conversation: Care, Poverty and Citizenship (SSc, DIV)

SLN 15181 (View UW registration info »)

Victoria Lawson (Geography; Honors Program)
Phone: 206-543-5196
Email: lawson@uw.edu

Credits: 2
Limit: 15 students

Credit Type

NOTE: This course does NOT fulfill Interdisciplinary Honors requirements, as it is only a 2 credit course. It will only award non-Honors UW elective credit and a great experience.
This 2 credit seminar explores the root causes of impoverishment and homelessness in the U.S. We will unlearn poverty and homelessness as framed in popular discourse and the ‘poverty industry’. We will explore root causes of impoverishment including both material processes and representations that frame individual people and places as poor. We will think about the role of the non-poor and structural causes in the production of poverty/inequality. In the first part of the course we will ethically engage with non-homed people, homelessness activists and political movements that are addressing the immediate and root causes of homelessness. We will then work on understanding root causes of homelessness, considering the role of housing and employment markets, criminalization and social policy. Finally, we will consider what relational poverty politics can contribute to addressing impoverishment in new ways. Students will be assessed on participation and their leadership of our discussions. The seminar is open to all students, no prior classes are required.