Labor Studies Minor
Current Labor Studies Courses
Updated: 2/6/2013
Now available: Full List of Spring 2013 Course Offerings 
Select a department to view the courses offered in 2012-2013 academic year. All courses listed count towards the 20 credits required to complete a Minor in Labor Studies.
About
The field of Labor Studies encompasses scholarship and teaching about work, workers and their organizations across many disciplines. From unions and organized labor, to the often unpaid caring labor taking place at home, Labor Studies is broadly conceived to include working men and women everywhere.
The Labor Studies minor brings together a series of courses on labor in core social-science departments. It provides students an interdisciplinary program of study focusing on the importance of labor to the economic, social, political, and cultural evolution of modern societies.
Requirements
To complete a Minor in Labor Studies, students must satisfy the following minimum requirements:
- HIST 249/POL S 249/SOC 266: Introduction to Labor Studies (5 credits):
Conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of labor and work. Role of labor in national and international politics. Formation of labor movements. Historical and contemporary role of labor in the modern world. - 20 additional credits from courses related to Labor Studies, with no more than 10 credits from one department. To view a list of courses that qualify, see below.
- A minimum 2.0 grade is required for each course applied towards the Labor Studies minor.
To apply for a minor, students must have completed at least 90 college credits. Students may declare a minor through a departmental advisor, by meeting with a Political Science Undergraduate Advisor, or at the time that they file a graduation application.
NOTE: Some courses, such as Special Topics, will not appear on students' DARS reports. To ensure the course is counted, or to request that a course not listed on this website be counted towards the Labor Studies Minor, contact the Bridges Center at hbcls@u.washington.edu.
For further information, contact a departmental advisor or contact the Bridges Center at 206-543-7946, or hbcls@u.washington.edu.
Recommended
In addition to HIST 249/POL S 249/SOC 266: Introduction to Labor Studies, the following courses are recommended but not required to complete the Labor Studies Minor:
- HSTAA 353: Class and Labor in American History (5 credits):
The history of workers and class formation from 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.
Labor Studies Minor - 2012-2013 Courses
American
Ethnic Studies
(AES)
- Asian-American Studies (AAS)
- Chicano Studies (CHSTU)
AAS 101 - Introduction to Asian American Cultures
Credits: 5
Department: Asian-American Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Instructor: Moon-Ho Jung, Gail Nomura
Description: Introductory history of Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese and Koreans in the United States from the 1840s to the 1960s. Major themes include imperialism, labor migration, racism, community formation, and resistance. Explores the particular experiences of Asian Americans within regional, national, and global contexts. Central questions addressed throughout the course are: What forces have driven Asians to migrate to the United States? How have Asians figured in U.S. race relations? What factors have unified and stratified Asian American communities? How have Asian Americans struggled for democracy and justice? The course will conclude by examining the growing diversity of Asian Americans since the 1960s.
AAS 206 - Contemporary Problems of Asian Americans
Credits: 5
Department: Asian-American Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Connie So
Description: Recent Asian and Pacific Islander American issues, from the 1960s to the present. Topics include post-1960s immigration, ethnic enclaves, civil rights, racial and ethnic stereotypes, identity politics, social organizations, community building and political movements.
AAS 350 - Chinese American History and Culture
Credits: 5
Department: Asian-American Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Connie So
Description: Experience of the Chinese in America from 1850 to the present. Transformation from an immigrant to Chinese American community: immigration patterns, anti-Chinese movements, ethnic sociopolitical and economic institutions, community issues, Chinese American culture.
AES 322/GWSS 300 – Gender, Race, and Class in Social Stratification
Credits: 5
Department: American Ethnic Studies / Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013
Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell, Nina Young Kim, Mae Henderson
Description: The intersection of race and gender in the lives of women of color in the United States from historical and contemporary perspectives. Topics include racism, sexism, activism, sexuality, and inter-racial dynamics between women of color groups.
CHSTU 200 - Latinos in the United States
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Erasmo Gamboa
Description: Historical, social, and economic experience of Latinos in the United States. Major themes include education, labor, class, and gender identity. Analyzes rapid growth of old and newly established Latino communities, based on emigration from Latin America.
CHSTU 254 - Northwest Latinos: History, Community, Culture
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Erasmo Gamboa
Description: Traces the history, extent, and development of the Chicano/Latino presence from the early Spanish period to the present. Examines the major contemporary political, social, and economic issues affecting Northwest Chicano/Latinos in a broader national and international context.
CHSTU 260 - Introduction to Chicano Politics
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Prof. Elizabeth Salas
Description: Surveys the political position and activities of Mexican-American peoples in the United States from two perspectives: (1) Chicanos as objects of the political process of U.S. life, (2) contributions of the Chicano people to U.S. politics.
CHSTU 342 - Working Latinas and Latinos: Changing Sites of Identity in Daily Life
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky
Description: This a sociological examination of Latinas' and Latinos' experiences in work locally (studies in the US) and globally (transnational studies). Our work is to examine the changing conceptions and contexts of work and its impact on Latina/o identity. We will also learn to locate how ideologies of gender, race, ethnicity and nation shape Latinas/os' working lives and impact economic and social inequality. Readings, lectures and discussions will explore different sites of work to capture a broad understand of the diverse ways in which we all labor in daily life. Consequently, as we all participate in different social worlds of work, you are encouraged to share your own observations and insights with the members of our class. Some of the questions that will frame your lens include: What are the ways we can [re]define labor? What are the different ways in which Latinas/Latinos work? How do labor markets and the workplace organize women and men differently across different domains of work? How do race and gender ideology shape Latinas and Latinos' understandings of their identities as workers? What changes result in [re]shaping home and family spaces? How do immigration and government legislation [re]shape and reconfigure employment opportunities as well as gender and race relations?
CHSTU 354 - Unions, Labor, and Civil Rights in California and Pacific Northwest Agriculture
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Prof. Erasmo Gamboa
Description: Comparative study of Southwest and Pacific Northwest farm workers against the social movement of the 1960's, its significance in the socio-political development of the Chicano civil rights movement, and its legacy. Uses historical and social science research methods along with analytical criticism to examine the period of social history.
CHSTU/ANTH 416 - Comparative Social Movements: Mexico and the United States
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Devon G. Peña
Description: Historical, ethnographic, and theoretical perspectives in the study of Mexican-origin communities in social movements in Mexico and the United States with a focus on workers, immigrants, peasants, women, indigenous peoples, and students as forces of collective mobilization and social, cultural, and political change.
Anthropology (ANTH)
ANTH 345/GWSS 345/JSIS B 345 – Women and International Economic Development
Credits: 5
Department: Anthropology / Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Priti Ramamurthy
Description: Questions how women are affected by economic development in Third World and celebrates redefinitions of what development means. Theoretical perspectives and methods to interrogate gender and development policies introduced. Current processes of globalization and potential for changing gender and economic inequalities assessed.
ANTH/CHSTU 416 - Comparative Social Movements: Mexico and the United States
Credits: 5
Department: Chicano Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Devon G. Peña
Description: Historical, ethnographic, and theoretical perspectives in the study of Mexican-origin communities in social movements in Mexico and the United States with a focus on workers, immigrants, peasants, women, indigenous peoples, and students as forces of collective mobilization and social, cultural, and political change.
ANTH 469 - Special Studies in Anthropology: Critiques of Contemporary Capitalism
Credits: 5
Department: Anthropology
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Sareeta Amrute
Description: The writings of Karl Marx inaugurated radical reworkings of both social theory and political action. Beginning with some of his seminal writings on capitalism and political economy we will move on to consider further elaborations of Marxist thought in the Frankfurt School, British labor theory, and postcolonial theory. In particular, we will use a close reading of Marx as a entry-way for understanding forms of economy and subjectivity produced through the aporias of late capitalism. Following on our review of the reigning critiques of Capitalism, we will move on to consider contemporary writers such as David Harvey, Hart and Negri, and Deleuze.
Economics (ECON)
ECON 443 - Labor Market Analysis
Credits: 5
Department: Economics
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Instructor: Prof. Elaina Rose
Description: Determinants of employment and incomes in the United States: analysis of individual and firm decisions and of equilibrium in the labor market. Topics include decisions to work and retire, education and occupation choices, compensation, discrimination, poverty, unemployment and unions. Examination of policy issues affecting the labor market. Prerequisite: 2.0 in ECON 300.
English (ENGL)
ENGL 250 - American Literature: Working Class Literature
Credits: 5
Department: English
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Ariel Wetzel
Description: English 250 is a survey course that introduces you to a diverse selection of "American" literature. In this section, we read and analyze diverse texts by and about working class people. Themes of this literature include: poverty, physical labor, labor organizing and strikes, globalization, and unemployment. Questions we will address include: (1) What is "working class"? (2) What features make up working class literature, if there even is such a thing? (3) How might working class literature be included and excluded from what we typically thought of as ?canonical? (must-read) American literature? (4) How does working class identity intersect with gender, race, and immigration status? NOTE: As a topics course, this class will not automatically appear on students' DARS reports for the Labor Studies Minor. To ensure the course is counted, students should contact the Bridges Center at hbcls@u.washington.edu.
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (ENV H)
ENV H 453 – Industrial Hygiene
Credits: 3
Department: Environmental Health
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Michael Morgan
Description: Introduction to the principles and scientific foundation of industrial hygiene. Examines the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of work place hazards to health and safety. Focuses on the first three functions, but includes some consideration of control methods.
ENV H 564/IND E 564 – Recognition of Health and Safety Problems in Industry
Credits: 2
Department: Environmental Health / Industrial Engineering
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Janice Camp
Description: Develops skills in occupational health and safety hazard recognition in a variety of important northwest industries. Focuses on process understanding and hazard recognition skills during walk-through inspections of several local facilities, stressing a multidisciplinary approach.
ENV H 584 – Occupational and Environmental Health: Policy and Politics
Credits: 3
Department: Environmental Health
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Janice Camp
Description: Provides an understanding of the policy process and policy issues in occupational and environmental health and safety, including exploring the relationships between science, values, and politics in the process of setting public policy.
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies (GWSS)
GWSS 300/AES 322 – Gender, Race, and Class in Social Stratification
Credits: 5
Department: Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies / American Ethnic Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013
Instructor: Jeanette Bushnell, Nina Young Kim, Mae Henderson
Description: The intersection of race and gender in the lives of women of color in the United States from historical and contemporary perspectives. Topics include racism, sexism, activism, sexuality, and inter-racial dynamics between women of color groups.
GWSS 333/JSIS B 333 – Gender and Globalization: Theory and Process
Credits: 5
Department: Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Priti Ramamurthy
Description: Theoretical, historical, and empirical analysis of how current processes of globalization are transforming the actual conditions of women's lives, labor, gender ideologies, and politics in complex and contradictory ways. Topics include feminist exploration of colonialism, capitalism, economic restructuring policies, resistance in consumer and environmental movements.
GWSS 345/ANTH 345/SIS 345 – Women and International Economic Development
Credits: 5
Department: Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies / Anthropology / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Priti Ramamurthy
Description: Questions how women are affected by economic development in Third World and celebrates redefinitions of what development means. Theoretical perspectives and methods to interrogate gender and development policies introduced. Current processes of globalization and potential for changing gender and economic inequalities assessed.
Geography (GEOG)
GEOG 123/JSIS 123 - Introduction to Globalization
Credits: 5
Department: Geography / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Instructor: Matthew Sparke, Leonie Newhouse
Description: Provides an introduction to the debates over globalization. Focuses on the growth and intensification of global ties. Addresses the resulting inequalities and tensions, as well as the new opportunities for cultural and political exchange. Topics include the impacts on government, finance, labor, culture, the environment, health, and activism.
GEOG 230 - Urbanization and Development: Geographies of Global Inequality
Credits: 5
Department: Geography
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Victoria A. Lawson
Description: Examines the processes driving urban growth in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The course examines urbanization in its international context. These issues and their human impacts are discussed in the context of historical and contemporary changes in the international political-economy. The course begins by reexamining some of the defining debates in development studies; population, migration/immigration dynamics, 'overurbanization', protectionism and free trade. The course culminates with a discussion of the human dimensions of broad political-economic processes examining questions of urban employment, shelter and political action. Major themes include: the cultural context of urban growth, the rapid pace of urbanization, indigenous urban forms, and colonial legacies.
GEOG 271 - Geography of Food and Eating
Credits: 5
Department: Geography
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Lucy Jarosz
Description: Examines food production, distribution, and consumption issues across geographic scales. Focus ranges from the microcosm of the individual body to food and eating at national and global scales. Explores the political, social, cultural, and economic dimensions of food and eating in particular spaces, places, environments, contexts, and regions.
GEOG 331 - Global Poverty and Care
Credits: 5
Department: Geography
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Victoria A. Lawson
Description: Explores the causes and patterns of global poverty, and the urgent need for studies of care in both academic work and public policy. Considers the possibilities and challenges of caring across distance, and ways to respectfully engage with people in different places.
GEOG 371 - World Hunger and Agricultural Development
Credits: 5
Department: Geography
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Lucy Jarosz
Description: Addresses world hunger and poverty in relation to agricultural development, food security policy, the globalization of food and agriculture and social movements. Explores the problem and historical persistence of hunger across geographic scale and examines the debates about how hunger can be eradicated.
GEOG 439 - Gender, Race, and the Geography of Employment
Credits: 5
Department: Geography
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Rebecca Burnett
Description: This course focuses on the intersections of employment, race, ethnicity and gender in American cities. Students will examine the theoretical debates around what is defined as work and labor and the ways in which labor, gender, and race come together to constitute different citizenship roles for groups in the US. We will also utilize case studies from the social sciences as well as policy debates to highlight the spatiality of labor. Students will engage in the material through readings, films, guest speakers and fieldwork.
GEOG 476/GWSS 476 - Women and the City
Credits: 5
Department: Geography / Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
Quarter Offered: Summer 2012
Instructor: Prof. Kim England
Description: Explores the reciprocal relations between gender relations, the layout of cities, and the activities of urban residents. Topics include: feminist theory and geography (women, gender, and the organization of space); women and urban poverty, housing and homelessness; gender roles and labor patterns; geographies of childcare; and women and urban politics.
History (HIST)
- History of the Americas
(HSTAA) - History of Asia (HSTAS)
- Modern European History (HSTEU)
HIST 249/POL S 249/SOC 266 – Introduction to Labor Studies
Credits: 5
Department: History / Political Science / Sociology
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Margaret Levi
Description: Conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of labor and work. Role of labor in national and international politics. Formation of labor movements. Historical and contemporary role of labor in the modern world.NOTE: This course is a requirement of the Labor Studies Minor, and does not count towards the 20 additional credits required from courses related to Labor Studies.
HIST 265 - Modern Revolutions Around the World
Credits: 5
Department: History
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Glennys Young
Description: Introduces the causes, processes, and legacies of modern revolutions. Cases include the American, French, Mexican, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions. Special attention given to how these and other revolutions have shaped the modern world. What causes revolutions? What are the major types of revolutions that have occurred around the world since the end of the eighteenth century? How do revolutionaries seek to remake politics, society, and culture? What consequences do revolutions have for people from all walks of life? This course will explore these and other questions about revolutionary processes by focusing on comparative analysis of major cases that are among those that have made the world what it is today.
HIST 498 - Gender, Sex and Labor in Latin America and the Caribbean
Credits: 5
Department: History
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Ileana Rodriguez-Silva
Description: Not available.
HIST 498 - Civil Rights and Labor in the Pacific Northwest
Credits: 5
Department: History
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: James Gregory
Description: Students in this class will participate in an historical research project that is documenting the history of struggles for racial and economic justice in the Seattle area. The civil rights movement in Seattle started well before the celebrated struggles in the South in the 1950s and the Seattle movement relied not just on African American activists, but also Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. It also depended upon the support of some elements of the region's labor movement. From the 1910s through the 1970s, labor and civil rights were linked in complicated ways, with some unions and radical organizations providing critical support to struggles for racial justice, while others blocked access to jobs and obstructed struggles for equal rights.
HSTAA 105 - The Peoples of the United States
Credits: 5
Department: History of the Americas
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. James Gregory
Description: Surveys American diversity since 1500. Repeopling of America through conquest and immigration by Native Americans, Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans. Contributions of various peoples and the conflicts between them, with special attention to changing constructions of race and ethnicity and evolving understandings of what it means to be American.
HSTAA 205 - Asian American History
Credits: 5
Department: History of the Americas
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Moon-Ho Jung
Description: Introductory history of Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese and Koreans in the United States from the 1840s to the 1960s. Major themes include imperialism, labor migration, racism, community formation, and resistance. Explores the particular experiences of Asian Americans within regional, national, and global contexts. Central questions addressed throughout the course are: What forces have driven Asians to migrate to the United States? How have Asians figured in U.S. race relations? What factors have unified and stratified Asian American communities? How have Asian Americans struggled for democracy and justice? The course will conclude by examining the growing diversity of Asian Americans since the 1960s.
HSTAA 353 - Class and Labor in American History
Credits: 5
Department: History of the Americas
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Alexander Morrow
Description: 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.
HSTAA 386 - The Challenges of Post-Coloniality in Latin America and the Caribbean
Credits: 5
Department: History of the Americas
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Ileana Rodriguez-Silva
Description: Explores the legacies of, and ruptures from, colonialism and the new challenges Latin American and Caribbean peoples faced throughout the years after their struggles for independence from direct European rule. Emphasis on analysis of the negotiations and challenges entailed in the dynamic processes of national state formation in comparative perspective.
Key themes include: diverse meanings and assessments of modernity; narratives of modernity and its non-modern "others"; the relationship between modernity and modern emancipatory movements; the relationship between modernity and colonialism; the impact of modernity on intimate relationships; the question of historical progress (i.e., are modern people better off than their pre-modern predecessors and non-Western contemporaries?); the declining role of religion, tradition, and communities in modern societies; modernity as experienced by disenfranchised populations; modernity as myth; intimations of postmodernity.
International Studies (JSIS)
- Area Studies
(JSIS A)
- Global/Thematic
(JSIS B)
JSIS 123/GEOG 123 - Introduction to Globalization
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies / Geography
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Instructor: Matthew Sparke, Leonie Newhouse
Description: Provides an introduction to the debates over globalization. Focuses on the growth and intensification of global ties. Addresses the resulting inequalities and tensions, as well as the new opportunities for cultural and political exchange. Topics include the impacts on government, finance, labor, culture, the environment, health, and activism.
JSIS A 324/LSJ 322 - Human Rights in Latin America
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Angelina Snodgrass Godoy
Description: Overview of human rights issues and their recent evolution in Latin American history; military dictatorships; contemporary challenges in the region's democracies. Human rights concerns in relation to broader sociopolitical context.
JSIS A 355 / SOC 355 - Social Change in Latin America
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies / Sociology
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Jonathan Warren
Description: Explores cultures, identities, political economy, and popular mobilization in Latin America. Examines relations of power and production between social classes and ethnic groups, as well as ideologies and intellectual movements.
JSIS A 408 / POL S 442 - Government and Politics of China
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies / Political Science
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Susan Whiting
Description: Post-1949 government and politics, with emphasis on problems of political change in modern China.
JSIS B 324 - Immigration
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Kathie Friedman
Description: Introduces key theoretical debates in international migration. Examines immigrants' political, economic, religious, and social integration into host societies, and continued ties to homelands. Experiences of voluntary and involuntary immigrants, of the second generation, and of incorporation into America and Europe. Designed around interdisciplinary texts and fieldwork in Seattle.
JSIS B 333/GWSS 333 – Gender and Globalization: Theory and Process
Credits: 5
Department: International Studies / Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Priti Ramamurthy
Description: Theoretical, historical, and empirical analysis of how current processes of globalization are transforming the actual conditions of women's lives, labor, gender ideologies, and politics in complex and contradictory ways. Topics include feminist exploration of colonialism, capitalism, economic restructuring policies, resistance in consumer and environmental movements.
JSIS B 345/ANTH 345/GWSS 345 – Women and International Economic Development
Credits: 5
Department:International Studies / Anthropology / Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Priti Ramamurthy
Description: Questions how women are affected by economic development in Third World and celebrates redefinitions of what development means. Theoretical perspectives and methods to interrogate gender and development policies introduced. Current processes of globalization and potential for changing gender and economic inequalities assessed.
Law, Societies, and Justice (LSJ)
LSJ 322/JSIS A 324 - Human Rights in Latin America
Credits: 5
Department: Law, Societies, and Justice / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Angelina Snodgrass Godoy
Description: Overview of human rights issues and their recent evolution in Latin American history; military dictatorships; contemporary challenges in the region's democracies. Human rights concerns in relation to broader sociopolitical context.
LSJ 490 - Special Topics in Comparative Legal Institutions
Credits: 5
Department: Law, Societies, and Justice
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Lawrence Cushnie
Description: This course explores the law through the activism and the protest which contests the meaning of law and help to shape its future. Law, as a construction of society, faces constant opposition and periods of elevated resistance in specific subject areas. These areas include: abolitionism, workers' rights, womens' suffrage and liberation, civil rights, the student and anti-war movement, the American Indian movement, environmentalism, and animal rights. Each of these important socio-legal movements creates the subject for our discussions. We focus upon the legal and political theorists and activists who challenged these laws, as well as the text of the court cases that became precedent for the United States legal system.
LSJ 491 - Special Topics in Rights: Working Immigrants: Legality and Rights
Credits: 5
Department: Law, Societies, and Justice
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky
Description: How do we define work? How do we define a worker? And what rights can a worker claim? This class will look at the relationship between work, legality and rights. Specifically, our readings and discussions will examine the work experiences of immigrants in the US.
In brief, we will consider specific case studies to examine the following: What is the relationship between migrant status and the kind of work one does? What does the context of the work/labor look like? Type of workers, codes of conduct, workplace practices, laws (labor, criminal and immigration). What is the relationship between location and the work that is done? How do all of the above shape or impact workers' access to their rights?
Political Science (POL S)
POL S 249/SOC 266/HIST 249 – Introduction to Labor Studies
Credits: 5
Department:Political Science / Sociology / History
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Margaret Levi
Description: Conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of labor and work. Role of labor in national and international politics. Formation of labor movements. Historical and contemporary role of labor in the modern world. NOTE: This course is a requirement of the Labor Studies Minor, and does not count towards the 20 additional credits required from courses related to Labor Studies.
POL S 360 – Introduction to United States Constitutional Law
Credits: 5
Department:Political Science
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: George Lovell
Description: This course on American constitutionalism examines the foundations of the United States political system. It looks at some of the political and legal processes that have shaped constitutional development from the founding to the present. The course focuses on issues related to the two most important features of the American constitutional system: seperation of powers and federalism. Particular attention is paid to the way constitutional development has been shaped by efforts to regulate economic activity. The course considers the political context in which the Supreme Court makes constitutional law and the effect of Supreme Court power on democratic processes and electoral accountability. The course also covers some basics of Supreme Court process.
POL S 442 / JSIS A 408 - Government and Politics of China
Credits: 5
Department:Political Science / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Prof. Susan Whiting
Description: Post-1949 government and politics, with emphasis on problems of political change in modern China.
Social Work
(SOC W)
SOC W 536 – Social Movements and Organizing: People, Power, and Praxis
Credits: 3
Department: Social Work
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: James Diers
Description: Focuses on social, economic, and political problems from an organizer' s perspective, and strategies, tactics, and skills necessary to engage in organizing activities. Emphasizes principles common to community, electoral, union, and issue organizing. Addresses why people organize, how organizing works, and what it takes to be a good organizer. Priority given to Social Work Graduate Students. Undergraduates may apply with permission from instructor.
Sociology (SOC)
SOC 266/HIST 249/POL S 249 – Introduction to Labor Studies
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology / History / Political Science
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Margaret Levi
Description: Conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of labor and work. Role of labor in national and international politics. Formation of labor movements. Historical and contemporary role of labor in the modern world. NOTE: This course is a requirement of the Labor Studies Minor, and does not count towards the 20 additional credits required from courses related to Labor Studies.
SOC 355 / JSIS A 355 - Social Change in Latin America
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology / International Studies
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Jonathan Warren
Description: Explores cultures, identities, political economy, and popular mobilization in Latin America. Examines relations of power and production between social classes and ethnic groups, as well as ideologies and intellectual movements.
SOC 360 – Introduction to Social Stratification
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013, Spring 2013
Instructor: Jake Rosenfeld
Description: Social class and social inequality in American society. Status, power, authority, and unequal opportunity are examined in depth, using material from other societies to provide a comparative and historical perspective. Sociological origins of recurrent conflicts involving race, sex, poverty, and political ideology.
SOC 401 – Special Topics in Sociology:
New Inequality: Recent
Trends in the U.S. and Other Advanced Industrialized Nations
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Jake Rosenfeld
Description: In the United States, unionization rates have fallen by 50% during the last few decades, a period also marked by severe increases in earnings’ inequality. Despite facing similar global economic pressures, near-universal unionization remains the norm in much of Scandinavia, where wage dispersion is comparatively low. Labor movements in other nations have suffered recently, although not to the extent of unions in the U.S. What accounts for such divergent outcomes? And what can the contemporary state of organized labor tell us about inequality and macroeconomic performance in the modern age? This course serves as a primer to the contemporary labor movement in the advanced democracies. We begin by exploring the causes and consequences of labor’s collapse in the U.S. Next, we compare the U.S. case to other countries, paying particular attention to heterogeneity among the non-U.S. cases. We end by exploring proposed strategies for labor revitalization in the U.S., drawing on other nations’ experiences as potential guideposts. This is not a course solely focused on unions and their members. Throughout the quarter, we will examine broader trends in macroeconomic performance and their interrelationships with the labor movement. One should leave the class with a sound understanding of how particular configurations of organized labor affect and are in turn influenced by the wider economy.
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
- Interdisciplinary Studies
(BIS) - American Studies
(BIS AMS)
BIS 327 - History of U.S. Labor Institutions
Credits: 5
Department: Interdisciplinary Studies, UW Bothell
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Instructor: Daniel Jacoby
Description: The realities of work in the US change substantially as labor institutions change. Major labor institutions include slavery, household labor, indentured servitude, the apprenticeship system, free labor, unions, schooling, and professions. We want to understand how these systems work and why they change over time. Finally, we'll want to consider how these institutions are relevant to us today, particularly how they relate to emerging global labor markets.
BIS AMS 363 - Conflict and Connection in the Americas
Credits: 5
Department: Interdisciplinary Studies, UW Bothell
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Loren Redwood
Description:This course will examine politics, and economy in the Americas through an in depth critical analysis of immigrant labor recruitment and exploitation of workers from Mexico, Central, and South America. We will examine several sites of conflict and connection, including: Hurricane Katrina and rebuilding in the Deep South, Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070, textile industry labor from New England to Central America to Columbia, and movement of US coal mining corporations from New England to Columbia. The course will engage an application of interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, theories of immigration and migration, transnational labor, labor markets, racialization and citizenship, as well as an examination of global financial institutions and multinational corporations. The exploration of multiple sites of labor exploitation and conflict provides an opportunity to investigate and explore an established historical pattern of US state-sponsored exploitation of immigrant populations from Mexico to South America and calla attention to legal, civil, and human rights abuses of disenfranchised immigrant populations.
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
- Arts (T ARTS)
- History (T HIST)
- Political Science (TPOL S)
- Sociology (T SOC)
T ARTS 406 – Labor, Globalization, and Art
Credits: 5
Department: Arts (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Prof. Beverly Naidus
Description: Explores issues of labor and globalization through the art process. Experiments with contemporary art practices, making projects that examine work histories and that follow the global journey of a commodity. Discussions focus on the history of labor art and how art is intersecting the global justice movement.
T HIST 322 – American Labor Since the Civil War
Credits: 5
Department: History (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Michael Honey
Description: Provides a history of workers and labor institutions from the era of industrialization to the post-industrial era, focusing on labor-management conflict, the rise and fall of unions, and on the role of government, the media, and other forces in determining events. Concludes with an assessment of labor today.
T HIST 416 – Life and Thought: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis
Credits: 5
Department: History (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Michael Honey
Description: Explores the experiences and thinking of three well-known leaders of African-American protest in the 1960s. Interprets black radicalism in that era and the relationship of these three analysts and activists to their times and to the present.
T HIST 440 – Black Labor in America
Credits: 5
Department: History (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Michael Honey
Description: Provides an overview and a detailed consideration of the contributions of the black working class to the making of America. Examines historic racial-economic barriers which have held back development of African-American communities, and the continuing causes and possible solutions to the economic crisis affecting black working people today.
T HIST 441 – Black Freedom Movement in Perspective
Credits: 5
Department: History (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Luther Adams
Description: Explores the historical roots and present-day manifestations of movements against racial oppression and for empowerment in the African-American community, focusing heavily on the period since the 1950s.
TPOL S 311 – International Human Rights
Credits: 5
Department: Political Science (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Michael Forman
Description: Team-oriented research of the historical origins, theories, basic documents, personalities, institutions, and legal and political processes which have promoted international human rights as a widely accepted legal and moral foundation for a just world order.
TPOL S 456 – Community and Labor Organizing: A Multicultural Perspective
Credits: 5
Department: Political Science (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012
Instructor: Charles Williams
Description: Explores current community and labor organizing issues through intersections of gender, race, class, and immigration. Discussions of labor movements, community and environmental coalitions, living wage, social justice, and anti-sweatshop campaigns, in context of globalization. Case studies and issues vary.
TPOL S 480 – Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Seminar
Credits: 5
Department: Political Science (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Spring 2013
Instructor: Charles Williams
Description: Provides in-depth treatment of topics in politics and philosophy; political economy; law and policy; economics and policy and ethics and economics. Emphasizes analysis of methodological issues and developing students' research and writing skills.
T SOC 266 - Introduction to Labor Studies
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Charles Williams
Description: Examines the role of labor in the contemporary United States and in the global economy. Explores the nature of work within market economies, forms of worker organizing, and the interaction between race, gender, and class within the workplace.
T SOC 335 – Social Class and Inequality
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013, Spring 2013
Instructor: Anthony Falit-Baiamonte
Description: Examines the problem of persistent urban poverty in the United States. Explores the differential risk of poverty experienced by racial and ethnic groups and by women and children in the context of the major theories of class stratification. Also discusses the factors that lead to extreme-poverty neighborhoods, how these environments affect the life chances of residents, survival strategies of the poor, and public policy implications.
T SOC 434 - Women, Race, and Class: Identity and Intergroup Relations
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Autumn 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013
Instructor: Prof. Emily Ignacio, Tanya Velasquez
Description: Explores interlocking effects of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality on the life experiences of women in the U.S. Includes: impact of race, ethnicity, and racism on social institutions; women's experiences of racism; struggles of anti-racist women; relationship between racial, class, and sexual identities and feminism, development of dialogue and coalitions between women.
T SOC 435 - Migration in the Modern World: Migrants, Immigrants, and Refugees
Credits: 5
Department: Sociology (Tacoma)
Quarter Offered: Winter 2013
Instructor: Prof. Emily Ignacio
Description: Examination of the dynamics of international migration in the modern world, with a focus on selected sending and receiving societies (western and non-western). Investigates both macro-economic and political influences on migration, as well as the involvement of social networks and households. Explores the diversity of population movements in historical perspective and in the context of competing theories of migration, settlement, and adaptation.
A list of Labor Studies minor courses offered since Fall 2009 at the University of Washington, Seattle campus.
To learn whether a class will be offered in the future, please contact the relevant department.
American Ethnic Studies
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ASIAN-AMERICAN STUDIES
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AAS 350 - Chinese American History and Culture
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - CHSTU 498 - Special Topics in Chicano Studies: Food Sovereignty in Mexico and the United States
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011
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CHICANO STUDIES
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CHSTU 498 - Special Topics in Chicano Studies: Food Sovereignty in Mexico and the United States
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011
Anthropology
- ANTH 274 - Labor, Identity and Knowledge in Health Care
Last offered: SPRING 2012 - ANTH 339/GWSS 339/SIS 339 - Social Movements in Contemporary India
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - ANTH 371 - Anthropology of Development: The Urban/Rural Split in Global Labor History
Last offered: SPRING 2012 - ANTH 448/SISEA 448 - Modern Korean Society
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011 - ANTH 569 - Special Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology: Karl Marx's Grundisse & Capital
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011
Communication
- COM 339 - The Business of Media in the Digital Age
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011 - COM 342 - Media Structure
Last offered: SPRING 2010 - COM 495 - Special Topics in Communication: The Business of Popular Culture
Last offered: SPRING 2010
Comparative History of Ideas
- CHID 309 / HIST 309 - Marx and the Marxian Tradition in Western Thought: The Foundations of Modern Cultural Criticism
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - CHID 480 - Special Topics: Social Movements at the Margins
Last offered: SUMMER 2012
Economics
- ECON 444 - Topics in Labor Market Analysis
Last offered: WINTER 2010
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
- GWSS 339/ANTH 339/SIS 339 - Social Movements in Contemporary India
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - GWSS/GEOG 476 - Women and the City
Last offered: SUMMER 2012
Geography
- GEOG 342 - Geography of Inequality
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - GEOG/GWSS 476 - Women and the City
Last offered: SUMMER 2012
History
- HIST 309/CHID 309 - Marx and the Marxian Tradition in Western Thought: The Foundations of Modern Cultural Criticism
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - HIST 494 - Colloquium in Historiography: Latin America and U.S. Imperial Formation
Last offered: SPRING 2011 - HIST 498 - Special Topics: Race and Democracy in the Cold War United States
Last offered: SPRING 2012 - HIST 498 - Special Topics: Race and Gender in U.S. Labor History
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - HSTAA 185 - Introduction to Latin American History: From Columbus to Castro
Last offered: SUMMER 2012 - HSTAA 230 - Race and Power in America, 1861-1940
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - HSTAA 322 - African-American History, 1865 To The Present
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - HSTAA 353 - Class and Labor in American History
Last offered: SPRING 2012 - HSTAA 482 - The History of Brazil: Colonial Period to the Present
Last offered: SPRING 2012 - HSTEU 440/SIS 440 - History of Communism
Last offered: SPRING 2010
International Studies
- JSIS A 339/ANTH 339/GWSS 339 – Social Movements in Contemporary India
Last offered: WINTER 2012 - JSIS A 448/ANTH 448 - Modern Korean Society
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011 - SIS 490 - Special Topics: Transnational Connections and Migrant Cities
Last offered: WINTER 2011 - SISEA 490 - Special Topics: Education, Work and Family in a Changing Japan
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011
Sociology
- SOC 401 - Special Topics: New Inequality: Recent Trends in the U.S. and Other Advanced Industrialized Nations
Last offered: WINTER 2012
A list of Labor Studies minor courses offered since Fall 2009 at the University of Washington, Tacoma campus.
To learn whether a class will be offerred in the future, please contact the relevant department.
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
-
INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
- BIS 433 – Gender, Work and Family
Last offered: AUTUMN 2011 - BIS 441 – Global Labor Markets
Last offered: AUTUMN 2010
A list of Labor Studies minor courses offered since Fall 2009 at the University of Washington, Tacoma campus.
To learn whether a class will be offerred in the future, please contact the relevant department.