Courses
To Be Taught Fall 2009
Visualizing Human Rights and Social Change in Documentary Photography and Film
(undergraduate seminar course)
Explores the role that documentary photography and film play in promoting rights and advocating for social change, particularly in the realm of human rights. Examines the history of documentary film and photography in relationship to politics and to the development of concerns in sociology with inequality and social justice. Also looks at how individual documentarians, non-profit organizations and social movements use film and photography to further their goals and causes, and issues of representation their choices raise.
Photos slideshow at right features the work of UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Harvard students.
Students Samantha Barnard and Robert Jay Ross created a short documentary film titled "Grass Grows Back."
Click here to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMXEiP54H1Y
To Be Taught Spring 2009-10
Big Bird Goes to China: Organizations, Culture, and Globalization
(undergraduate junior tutorial)
This course examines how different kinds of organizations and institutions (corporations and firms, NGOs and non-profits, sports, arts and media organizations, economic development organizations, multilateral governance institutions) work internationally and develop relationships with international partners and counterparts.
Political Sociology
(graduate course)
Courses Previously Taught
The Politics of Law, Labor and Globalization in the Americas
(undergraduate seminar course)
The course will build upon two key queries: what are the causes for the decline of trade union density in the region, and what are the possibilities for renewal? In so doing, it will address the following six themes: the history of U.S.-Latin American union relations, comparative labor laws and state relations, labor movements and international governance institutions, the impact of trade in the Americas, the politics of economic development and labor rights, and the possibilities for transnationalism and upward harmonization.
Visualizing Social Problems in Documentary Film and Photography
(undergraduate lecture course)
Explores social problems as they are presented and constructed in documentary film and photography. Topics include crime and deviance, poverty, race and gender inequalities, environmental degradation, immigration, urbanization and globalization, and war and terrorism. Examines a variety of documentary film and photography genres such as historical, biographical, ethnographic, satire, and political expose. Compares the processes by which filmmakers and photographers engage in social documentation. (student photos in slideshow at right)
Law and Social Movements
(undergraduate lecture course)
Explores the relationship between law and social movements in the United States (with some international and transnational comparisons). Analyzes how the law shapes and structures social movements, how social movements mobilize the law to create social change, and how they engage in legal reform. Examines and compares a variety of social movements including the civil rights, human rights, labor rights, environmental, anti-globalization, women's rights, and indigenous rights movements.
Qualitative Methods
(graduate course)
Syllabi for courses and course information and materials are available on the Harvard website with password protection.