This course examines the conversation on poverty in Washington, DC through scholarship, research, and community-based service-learning with an afterschool program. Horton’s Kids is a local nonprofit that serves families in Ward 8’s Wellington Park neighborhood, where the average household income is below $10,000 a year. Students discover how Horton’s Kids has evolved since 1989 using […]
Social Issues
Fight Club: US War & Peace
This course provides an overview of the history and modern issues of peace and war with an emphasis on the institutions in Washington, D.C. (ie. Pentagon, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Amnesty International, State Department, CIA). Through reading ethnographic and historical case studies, as well as theoretical, journalistic, and polemical works, the course explores why and how the […]
Cities: Destroyed & Reinvented
The turmoil and traumas of modernity have transformed urban spaces into architectural and commemorative battlegrounds. This seminar introduces theories of memory and nationalism alongside controversies over architecture and planning with special case examples from twentieth-century European urban transformations. The dynamic environment of the US capital also informs the course. Intense discussion of weekly readings, short […]
Education: Problem or Solution
While there is agreement that education is key to individual and community well-being, much controversy exists over education’s goals and how to achieve them. Issues include identifying education challenges and effective solutions, recognizing how social or economic status interacts with education, and examining what role political ideologies play. Students engage with a variety of speakers, […]
Organizations and World Change
Complex problems challenge your generation. Some persist from prior generations, and others have recently emerged or intensified from rapid social, environmental, technological, economic, and geopolitical changes. The exact solutions to these problems may be uncertain, but they will certainly require ingenuity and innovation as well as multipronged approaches from diverse perspectives. In this course, […]
Poverty: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
This course addresses one of the most pressing challenges of our time: poverty and inequality. The course is an interdisciplinary critical analysis of the causes and consequences of, as well as solutions for, poverty from politically and philosophically diverse perspectives. We will focus on the definition and measurement of policy; the context of poverty in […]
Quest for Justice
This course introduces students to an on-going dialogue at the core of Western intellectual history about how to think about justice. The course examines how the attempt to achieve clarity about the fundamental problems of justice gives rise to new questions and problems that were not apparent at first. The central theme of the course […]
Social Justice or Libertarianism?
Social justice activists and libertarians are two of the most familiar social types in our polarized political climate. But how can such different perspectives speak to each other in a productive and respectful way? Is it possible for us to hear the truth in what our opponents say and face up to the weaknesses in […]
You expect me to pay for that?
As consumers, we generally only purchase the things we want: PC or Mac; private or public college; pizza or salad. The concept of choice is a powerful motivator for many Americans, whether it means the right to spend our money a particular way, control our bodies, buy health insurance (or not), or elect our representatives. […]
Ethics, Morals, and Criminal Law
Inherent within criminal law and justice is the power to make discretionary decisions that greatly impact the accused, victims, and society. This course exposes students to historical and contemporary issues that generate interaction between ethics and criminal justice. It will examine macro and micro attempts in recent history to ethically balance public safety and moral […]