HSTCMP 249 A: Introduction to Labor Studies

Winter 2025
View in MyPlan View in Time Schedule
Meeting:
MW 1:00pm - 2:20pm / SMI 120
SLN:
15702
Section Type:
Lecture
Joint Sections:
POL S 249 A , SOC 266 A
Instructor:
Syllabus Description (from Canvas):

POLS 249/SOC 266/HSTCMP 249:

Introduction to Labor Studies

University of Washington

Winter 2025

 

Instructor: Andrew Hedden, heddena@uw.edu  (He/Him)

Class Meetings: Monday/Wednesday, 1:00-2:20 in Smith Hall, Room 120

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 2:30 – 3:30PM, or by appointment, in Smith Hall, Room 019, Harry Bridges Center Office (located in the basement, one floor below our classroom)

TAs and Sections: 

  • Josh Sturman, sturmanj@uw.edu: AB 9:30 AM - 10:20 AM, Smith Hall, Room 311; AE 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM, Smith Hall, Room 311
  • Mohammad Raied Arman, mrarman@uw.edu: AF 11:30 AM - 12:20 PM, Savery Hall, Room 156; AH 12:30 PM - 1:20 PM, Savery Hall, Room 166

 

Course Description

This course explores the history, ideas, and politics of working people, broadly conceived, through Labor Studies. Labor Studies is interdisciplinary and intersectional. Though focused primarily on U.S. history, we will discuss how and why work is performed, organized and divided in societies, across time and space, within different countries, and different industries, and along lines of race and gender and other forms of power. We will consider how labor occurs everywhere under many conditions - at home, in the workplace, waged and unwaged, organized and unorganized. And we will discuss the history and politics of labor movements, including but not limited to unions, and how such movements have fought against oppression and hierarchy based on race, gender, sexuality, citizenship status, nationality, ability and more, in their particularities and their many intersections.

Students will be graded on short writing assignments (including reading responses), participation in sections, a mid-term paper, a final exam, and a final paper. 

This course is a foundational requirement for the Labor Studies Minor, and contributes to the Political Economy program of the Political Science major.

 

Readings

We will be reading two books this quarter: America is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan (University of Washington Press, 2014; originally published 1943) and Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice by Jamie K. McCallum (Basic Books, 2022). In addition, we will read a number of various book chapters and essays, which will be provided electronically on Canvas.

This is a reading intensive course, and it is imperative that you come to lecture and discussion section having done all the readings. Readings will not simply summarize the content from lecture; the readings instead provide additional theories and evidence that you will use in your paper and exams. All non-text book readings will be available on Canvas, and all articles are available to UW students for free online (make sure to use the UW Library Proxy on your browser). In addition, you will often be able to find the readings by simply Googling the author and title.

 

Assignments and Grading

Students will be graded on the following:

  • Section Participation (10%)
  • Survey and Reading Responses (15%)
  • Midterm Paper (20%)
  • Research Paper (30%)
  • Final Exam (25%)

 

Survey and Reading Responses. The first week of class, you will complete a short, five-minute on-line survey about your personal and family work history, and learning goals for the quarter. This information will help the instructors get to know the class better and relate course content to students’ experience. The collective results of the survey will be shared with the class during lecture, but personal information will not be recorded.

In addition, you will complete several regular Writing Responses. A Writing Response is two short paragraphs, typically between three and five sentences each, that requires you to discuss a reading, lecture, film, or guest speaker from the previous week. Specific prompts will be provided. You will submit your Writing Responses on Canvas. 

 

Midterm Paper.  Instead of a midterm exam, you will complete a Midterm Paper based on a one-hour interview with a worker. The paper must be submitted prior to class on Monday, February 3. Your paper should summarize your interview, and provide a list of the questions you asked. Your questions should be based on research specific to the person's job, and you must cite at least two independent secondary sources demonstrating that you prepared for the interview. Sources can include both contemporary news articles and academic articles and books. The paper must have a minimum word count of 1,000 words (roughly four pages). Further instructions will be provided, as well as suggested questions for the interview. You will submit your Midterm Paper on Canvas.

 

Final Paper. A Final Paper is due on Wednesday, March 12 by 11:59 PM. In the Final Paper, you will expand on the interview with a worker completed for the Midterm Paper by researching labor issues within the industry of the worker you spoke with. While you must draw upon material from your interview, the Final Paper is not a simple revision of your Midterm Paper. The goal of the Final Paper is to place the experience of the worker you spoke with in a broader context. You may research the history of work within their industry, discuss current events, or both. For example, if you interviewed a grocery worker, you could draw upon analyses of the grocery industry to discuss the company they work for and to explain the workers' working conditions. The Final Paper has a strict limit of 10 double-spaced pages (about 2,500 words) and must contain at least five independent sources, which may include the sources cited in your Midterm Paper.  Time will be set aside in sections to discuss research and workshop your papers with your peers. Further details of the Final Paper assignment, including formatting instructions, will be provided.

 

Final Exam. The in-person final exam will cover all material from the course, and will test for students' knowledge of key topics, themes, and concepts. A study guide will be provided beforehand, along with a list of potential exam questions.

 

Plagiarism and AI Tools

Academic dishonesty will result in a failing grade for the course. Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, falsifying academic records, and any other act designed to avoid participating honestly in the learning process. Academic dishonesty also includes, but is not limited to, providing false or misleading information to receive a postponement or extension on a test or assignment, or the submission of essentially the same written assignment for two different courses without prior permission of the instructors.

The unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI) is a form of academic misconduct at UW. Tools that use AI and large language models to generate text—such as ChatGPT, GPT4, Bing Chat, and “Write with AI” in Google Docs—are prohibited in this course. The use of such tools to complete your assignments constitutes academic misconduct according to UW policy and may result in serious disciplinary action.

 

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

 

The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

Please utilize the University of Washington’s Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies as a resource. The Bridges Center supports students interested in the labor movement through the Labor Studies Minor, labor-related courses, paid internships, scholarships, research, events, and more. 

Regular announcements about current Bridges Center opportunities will be made throughout the quarter. You can also learn more by visiting the Bridges Center website at labor.uw.edu, and by signing-up for the Center’s email list at labor.uw.edu/contact. 

 

Week One - January 6 and 8, 2025

What is Labor Studies?

 

Readings: 

Film:

Assignments:

 

Week Two - January 13 and 15, 2025

Race, Gender, and the History of Capitalism

 

Readings: 

Assignments: 

  • Writing Response
  • MIDTERM PAPER INSTRUCTIONS: Interview a Worker 

Guest Speaker:

  • Sai Ahmed, Assistant Director, and Maya Cruz, Researcher, from the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

 

Week Three - January 20 and 22, 2025

January 20 - NO CLASS, MLK DAY

Industrial Revolution, Settler Colonialism, and the Gilded Age

 

Readings: 

Assignments: 

  • Writing Response

 

Week Four - January 27 and 29, 2025

Global Revolution, Immigration, and Racial Exclusion

 

Readings:

Film:

Guest Speaker:

  • April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO

 

Week Five - February 3 and 5, 2025

The Origins of Today's Labor Law: The New Deal and the Rise of the CIO

 

Readings:

Film:

Assignments:

  • Midterm Paper Due: Must be submitted prior to class on Monday, February 3

 

Week Six - February 10 and 12, 2025

The Cold War, the “Treaty of Detroit,” the Golden Age of Capitalism, and the Civil Rights Movement

 

Readings:

Video:

Assignment: 

  • Writing Response

Guest Speaker:

  • Madison Zack-Wu, Strippers Are Workers

 

Week Seven - February 17 and 19, 2025

February 17 - NO CLASS, PRESIDENTS DAY

The Next Shift: Anti-Discrimination Law, Organized Labor in Crisis,  and the Rise of the Service Economy

 

Readings:

Video:

Assignment: 

  • Writing Response

 

Week Eight - February 24 and 26, 2025

Migrant Labor, Global Supply Chains, and Artificial Intelligence

Readings:

Assignment:

  • Writing Response

Guest Speaker:

  • Silvia González, Casa Latina

 

Week Nine - March 3 and 5, 2025

Today's Labor Movement and Caring Labor

 

Guest Speaker:

  • Faye Guenther, President, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 3000

Readings:

 

Week Ten - March 10 and 12, 2025

Review and Reflection

 

Guest Speakers:

Readings:

  • Jamie McCallum, finish Essential (167-252)

Assignments:

  • Final Paper Due: Must be submitted prior to class by 11:59PM on Wednesday, March 12

 

Final Exam - Monday, March 17, 2:30-4:20PM

The final exam will take place Monday, March 17, 2:30-4:20pm in Smith Hall, Room 120 (our regular classroom).

The in-person final exam will cover all material from the course, and will test for students' knowledge of key topics, themes, and concepts. A study guide will be provided beforehand, along with a list of potential exam questions.

 

 

Catalog 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. Course equivalent to: BIS 249. Course overlaps with: T EGL 266. Offered: jointly with POL S 249/SOC 266.
GE Requirements Met:
Social Sciences (SSc)
Credits:
5.0
Status:
Active
Last updated:
February 10, 2025 - 1:23 pm