Time Schedule:
Loren K. Redwood
B CUSP 131
Bothell Campus
Various topics designed to respond to curricular interests and needs for first-year students. Offered: AWSp.
Class description
Title: "The Dinner Table: Globalization, Justice, and Immigrant Labor" Increased globalization of economies and trade has fueled the need for a large workforce of low wage workers. The most easily exploitable and thereby highly prized labor force is comprised of immigrant workers, with undocumented immigrant laborers suffering the worst of these labor abuses. By employing the theme of a dinner table, participants in this course will examine impacts of the global economy on immigrant labor exploitation and the resultant need for social justice. This theme will be explored at the local, regional, and national level by using examples such as laborers in the Seattle area, the Olympic Peninsula, the Yakima Valley, and branching to the East Coast and South
Student learning goals
Gain an understanding of the connections between Globalization, immigrant labor, and commodities we take for granted in our daily lives.
Gain knowledge and understanding of the ways in which Globalization and Capitalism are dependent on a highly exploitable low wage labor force
Gain knowledge of the multiple sites in which immigrant laborer are being exploited at the local, regional, and national level.
Gain research skills that will enable student to undertake a major research project.
Gain knowledge of the ways in which exploited laborers resist oppression.
Connect with local immigrant advocacy organizations in order to gain knowledge and insight into local issues and activism
General method of instruction
Instruction will include lecture, large and small group work, and multiple activites that will allow for application of course concepts.
Recommended preparation
The course has no prerequisites. Students are expected to prepare by obtaining course materials in advance of the start of the course.
Class assignments and grading
Critical readings of multiple texts, engagement in research activities, and participation in a social justice activity will comprise the methods by which we will study this topic. Students will be asked to engage in a critical analysis of course readings; take part in a social justice action on campus (which will be explained in class); and contribute to a group research project, presentation, and paper on food production and labor exploitation in which core theoretical concepts presented in the course readings and lecture are applied
All assigned work must be turned in on time in order to be accepted. Grades will be assigned based on rubics which will be provided for each assignment.
