Curriculum

This program carries quarter units of UC credit.

Course Overview

This program is both a seminar and an internship; a way to augment traditional classroom-based learning with experiential learning in a community setting, with direct engagement in labor and workplace issues.

Each Monday, students will engage in the seminar portion of the class, gaining exposure to concepts of social justice and building analytical tools. The class involves an in-depth examination of the experience of workers and the role of the labor movement in American society and internationally, both historically and currently. Topics to be examined include:  the changing organization of work in the U.S. and the reconfiguration of employment relationships; the response of the labor movement, historically and in the present, to managerial initiatives; the way in which organized labor has handled issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and immigration status; the challenges facing workers in the twenty-first century and the ways in which organizations (not only unions, but also community-based organizations and worker centers focused on labor issues) are responding to those challenges.

Each Wednesday, students will participate in classroom-based activities related to their internships.  These internship placements give students the opportunity to work in a supervised setting in a community agency, a labor union, or other organization concerned with work and employment issues.  Placements will be arranged by the instructor and students will discuss their experiences through weekly written journals and groups discussions.

Course Organization and Requirements

Each student is required to dedicate 15 hours of substantive work in the placement setting each week (20% of grade) and to maintain a weekly journal describing the internship experience (15%). This journal will also include weekly responses to the assigned texts, which students must be prepared to discuss in detail in class.  Active participation is expected in weekly class discussions with the instructor and other interns, of selected readings and the internship experiences (15%).

A final research paper (14-16 pages) is required for this class (35% of grade).  This is one of main requirements of this course, therefore, a lot of planning and care should be put into it. This research paper will be focused primarily on a topic that is related to the internship site and the final topic of the paper has to be approved by the instructor before the end of the fourth week of classes. The final paper should integrate individual research with the class material such as readings, presentations, and discussions, as well as the students’ previous organizational experience. 

It will be difficult to write a substantive 14-16 page paper in eight weeks.  For that reason it is very important for students to begin the project early. 

Week 4: Students will be required to bring their paper topics to class and have them approved by the instructor (write 1 paragraph about what your project will be, for example: exploration of race, class, and gender dynamics in a union; where a placement site fits in the service vs. organizing framework, etc).
Week 5: Students should bring a general outline of their papers. 
Week 6: Students should bring a completed first draft of their paper. 
Week 8: The final paper is due!

During the final week of classes, student will deliver presentations about the main findings of their research paper and the main lessons (both personal and intellectual) obtained during the internship experience (15%).

Syllabus

View the 2008 syllabus here.

View a sample schedule for internships here.

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