Labor studies is an interdisciplinary and intersectional field that explores the history, ideas, and politics of working people, broadly conceived. This class introduces participants to Labor Studies by asking questions including “why do we work?”, “what are the conditions we work in?”, and “how has work changed over time?” To answer these questions, participants will discuss how and why work is performed, organized and divided across time and space; within different countries and industries; and along lines of race, gender and other forms of power. Participants will further consider how labor occurs under many conditions - at home, in the workplace, waged and unwaged, organized and unorganized, slave and free. And participants will discuss the history and politics of labor movements - including but not limited to labor unions - and how such movements have fought against oppression and hierarchy based on race, gender, citizenship status, nationality, ability and more, in their particularities and their many intersections. Finally, participants will receive introductory instruction in the tactics labor organizers use in order to get a feel of how such organization operates.
Students will be graded on two, interrelated papers, a final exam, section participation, and regular reading quizzes.
This course is a foundational requirement for the Labor Studies Minor and contributes to the Political Economy program of the Political Science major.