PRISON LOGICS AND ABOLITION FUTURES

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In the United States today, more than 2.3 million people are living in prison. This course focuses on mass incarceration in the US, but also interrogates the complex and transnational forces that underpin and undermine this reality - social control, power relations, cultural politics, resistance, and hope. Using a mixture of classroom dialogue, multi-genre writing and peer review, and in-class and out-of-class activities, this course will ask you to consider what you think about prisons and how prisons became thinkable.

CONTESTED COMMODITIES

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course takes as its site of inquiry ‘contested commodities’ – social, biological, immaterial entities whose entry into (and exit out of) capitalist markets has raised ire, conflict, and conceptual confusion. Through weekly discussions, written reflections, experiential site visits around Seattle, guest speakers, and a final project, students will learn to understand commodification as a socially situated process fraught with relations of power, difference, and value. Readings will draw from a range of historical and contemporary case studies including early modern Europe, colonial India, and present-day Seattle.

INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH DESIGN

COURSE DESCRIPTION: We often think of “research” as a high-minded profession reserved only for the expert. Luckily for us…that isn't true! This course will give you an introduction to the intellectual, emotional, messy process we call social science research. You will practice the skills necessary to design your own research projects – logical reasoning, library research, problem solving, self-direction, analytical thinking, curiosity, academic writing, and peer review, as well as how to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data.