Fall 2016

Unequal Childhoods:  Race, Class and Gender in the United States

Listed in: American Studies, as AMST-265  |  Anthropology and Sociology, as SOCI-265

Faculty

Leah C. Schmalzbauer (Section 01)

Description

(Offered as SOCI 265 and AMST 265.)  This class explores the ways in which race, class, gender and immigration status shape children’s lives. We begin by conceptualizing childhood as a social construct whose meaning has changed over time and that varies across context; for class privileged individuals, for example, childhood or adolescence may extend into the third decade of life, whereas for “others,” poverty and/or family responsibilities and community struggles may mean it scarcely exists at all. The bulk of the course draws from ethnographic scholarship focused on the relationship between childhood and inequality in key institutional contexts including school, family and the legal system. Through ethnography, we will critically examine the ways in which inequalities among and between groups of children shape their daily life experiences, aspirations and opportunities, and what this means for overall trends of inequality in the United States.

Limited to 35 students.  Fall semester.  Professor Schmalzbauer.

SOCI 265 - L/D

Section 01
Tu 01:00 PM - 02:20 PM WEBS 217
Th 01:00 PM - 02:20 PM WEBS 217

ISBN Title Publisher Author(s) Comment Book Store Price
Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School University of California Press Pascoe Amherst Books TBD
Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School Princeton University Press Khan Amherst Books TBD
Between the World and Me Spiegel & Grau Coates Amherst Books TBD
Women Without Class: Girls, Race and Identity University of California Press Bettie Amherst Books TBD
Speaking of Race and Class: The Student Experience at an Elite College Temple University Press Aries & Berman Amherst Books TBD

These books are available locally at Amherst Books.

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2016, Spring 2019