Courses

Gender and Poverty in the United States

SPRING: Tuesdays, 5:00 - 8:00 PM
January 29, 2013 - May 7, 2013
Building and Room TBD

This advanced reading seminar will engage students in analyzing the intersections of gender and poverty in the United States, and will explore commonly experienced dilemmas faced by those who study low-income America. Economic inequality and economic stressors other than poverty (e.g., unemployment, homelessness) will also be examined. Intellectual approaches from multiple disciplines, especially feminist approaches, to theorizing, measuring, and fighting poverty will be examined. The perspectives of those who are low-income and poor themselves will be highlighted. The course will weave discussions throughout about how these approaches relate to students’ training in various graduate programs.

FACULTY

Randy Albelda is a professor of economics and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social Policy at University of Massachusetts Boston. Her focuses are on economic policies affecting low-income women.  Her coauthored books include Glass Ceilings and Bottomless Pits; Unlevel Playing Fields; and The War on the Poor. 

Deborah Belle is professor of psychology and director of the Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program at Boston University. Her books include: Lives in stress: Women and Depression, Children’s Social Networks and Social Supports, and The After-school Lives of Children: Alone and With Others while Parents Work.

Lisa Dodson is a research professor of sociology at Boston College whose multi-method research focuses on women’s poverty, moral economy, and low-income work and family life. Her recent book The Moral Underground is based on eight years of research about economic hardship and everyday resistance.

Next Steps

Contact Us

Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14N-211
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 617-324-2085