Poverty Studies (PS)

Public policy could be fairly described as applied social science. This course will introduce you to the fundamentals of public policy by (1) understanding how policy is crafted, (2) detailing the linkages between public opinion and public policy, (3) appreciating how political institutions may bound policy outcomes, (4) and exploring the ability of special interests, and other parties, to shape policy outcomes all while introducing you to various tools and frameworks for approaching the study of public policy. These tools will draw from an understanding of human behavior (psychology), markets (economics), governments (political science), and organizations (sociology) and introduce you to policy analysis. We will use a case study approach to delve into current public policy controversies including healthcare, higher education finance, and infrastructure. This course acts as the primary introductory course for the Hesburgh Minor in Public Service, but is designed for students of all majors and interests.

This course aims at introducing students to the history of the Arab world. Through a panoramic view encompassing twelve centuries of Arab history and culture, we look at all sides of this rich and venerable civilization: the beauty of the Alhambra and the great mosques, the importance attached to education, the achievements of Arab science—but also internal conflicts, widespread poverty, the role of women, and the contemporary Palestinian question. We explore how the religion of Islam created a far-flung Arab Muslim world that embraced lands reaching from the shores of the Atlantic to Iraq and the Indian Ocean. Each has its own geographical features and historical traditions, yet certain themes and experiences are common to all: the rise and spread of Islam, the growth of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of European trade and empire, and in the last decades, the challenge of Islamic resurgence and integration into a new kind of world. We attempt at a clear and comprehensive interpretation of the paths of the Muslim religion, its divisions, its authorities and traditions, its current contradictory powers to unite and to divide. Throughout, social institutions and culture are intertwined with politics and economics. The texts we read in this class are studded with famous names from the past—Ibn Khaldun, al-Ghazali, and Ibn Sina (Avicenna); Saladin and ‘Abd al-Nasir (Nasser)—as well as with those of the recent memory—Hafiz al-Asad and Saddam Husayn; the Nobel Prize winner Najib Mahfuz, the cultural critic Edward Said and popular singer Umm Kulthum.

An introduction to the field of global development, with particular focus on the various disciplines that have contributed to and shaped the development discourse. Readings, lectures, and discussions will draw from various disciplines, including economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, environmental and technological sciences, public health, law, and gender studies, among others. We will examine debates on the meaning and measurement of development; alternative approaches to, and methods in, the study of development; and attempts to address some of the main development challenges facing the world today. There will be a central focus on understanding "what works" in development. Working together in teams, students will conceptualize and design an international development project using "real world" constraints.

The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with the tradition of Catholic social teaching with a view toward developing skills for critical reading and appropriation of these documents. We will examine papal, conciliar, and episcopal texts from Rerum novarum (1891) up to the present time, identifying operative principles, tracing central theological, ethical, and ecclesial concerns, and locating each document in its proper historical context. We will hold recurring themes in conversation with the broader theoretical framework of Catholic social thought and relevant secondary literature. Finally, students will examine some foundational topics in the early weeks of this course, such as the Biblical roots of CST, its natural law underpinnings, and its ecclesiological influences. This course must be completed in the first two semesters once the CST Minor has been declared.

This course is designed for students who have completed a Summer Service Project Internship (SSLP or ISSLP). It affords students the opportunity to re-engage their immersion experiences. Students will employ tools of social analysis, theological reflection, and rhetoric relative to both topics such as hunger, homelessness, poverty, incarceration, and immigration, and themes such as freedom, solidarity, mimesis, power, and the preferential option for the poor. The goal of the course is to develop a theology of discipleship to which justice is integral, including considerations of worship, sustainability, social reconciliation and restorative justice.

This course will explore the theology and practice of nonviolence as a form of askesis, or spiritual discipline. The material will include readings from Scripture, the early Christian tradition, and Catholic social teaching. Religious sources outside the Christian tradition will include Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Badshah Khan. This course will use the method of community-based learning and will require 20 hours of service at particular sites in the South Bend area.

In this gateway course, we ask: Why are people poor? We take an interdisciplinary look at poverty to better understand the forces that maintain poverty and the forces that resist it. From sustainability to social entrepreneurship, from economics to creative writing, we explore a variety of mindsets and methods for understanding, representing, and assessing poverty. Through academic and experiential learning, we gain a deeper understanding of the public and private programs and institutions that address poverty on the local, national, and global level. We also gain a deeper understanding of what has worked and what hasn't in domestic and international efforts to reduce poverty. Finally, students consider how they are called to address poverty in their personal and professional lives, exploring individual actions and careers that align with their skills and interests related to poverty.

Students will work with a South Bend neighborhood to explore a structural challenge and, with the guidance of a local artist, respond to this challenge alongside community members in creating an artistic piece that serves the good of the neighborhood. This seminar will also provide a "hands-on" experience as students are exposed to practices of participatory research methods and the art-making process.

This research seminar enlists undergraduates in the interdisciplinary efforts of the Just Wage Initiative (JWI), a collaborative research and advocacy project of the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns. Students will undertake research in two ways: First, they will contribute to the JWI by locating resources, marshaling evidence, and writing short reports, potentially for public use on our website. These tasks are assigned by the instructor; second, they will undertake individual research projects stemming from their own intellectual interests but dovetailing with the broader JWI agenda, producing an essay and making a presentation at semester's end. Here they will be mentored by the instructors, but they will drive that process. As this is a one-credit, letter-graded course, students will engage for roughly three hours per week throughout the semester, meeting every three weeks for 2.5 hours to discuss assigned readings, report on research progress, make presentations, and brainstorm future projects. In addition to the meetings, there will be short weekly writing assignments, plus a longer, 8-10-page essay due at the end of the semester.

Students selected to participate in the ND Bridge summer program enroll in this course exploring the ethics of encounter in local, domestic, and global contexts. Students will develop their awareness of what justice looks like in society, how systemic injustice is perpetuated by division, self centeredness, apathy, etc., and a growing sense of their role as agents of social change. Previously held ideas around identity, politics, and culture will be interrogated. The course will enable students to competently practice contemplation and action, as informed by the principles of ethical encounter, personally and professionally.

How do human rights intersect with trade in today’s globalized world? To answer this question, this course explores concrete, recent examples from Europe’s “fast-fashion-crazed” garment industry, which manufactures clothing, accessories, and home furnishings. Together we tackle key topics – such as living wages, workers’ right to organize, and forced overtime – and evaluate the root causes of endemic violations. How are these linked to the way global supply chains are structured? What steps have been taken so far to redress the power structures that undergird injustice in supply chains around the world? And what solutions are still needed, especially in light of increased climate change risks and automation? Through seminar discussions, workshops and guest lectures by practitioners from Europe, this course equips students with the tools to calculate the cost of human rights as part of a product’s price and to spot the differences between ‘greenwashing’ and authentic efforts for change.

Native Americans have long been trapped in a betwixt and between state, caught by the forces of past and present, tradition and assimilation, romanticization and caricature. Yet through it all, Native voices have continued to speak of the Indian experience with great power and eloquence. This course will introduce Native American literature as a distinctive contribution to American and world literature. We will examine a wide range of expressive culture from the last century, including novels, poetry, graphic stories, children's literature, film, digital media, autobiographies, performances of oral literature, and music. Through the passion, creativity, and humor of Indian authors, we will learn something of the historical experience of Native men and women, and how they have reacted to massacres and mascots, racism and reservations, poverty and political oppression. Above all, we will try to understand how indigenous authors have used literature to engage crucial issues of race and culture in the United States that continue to influence their lives: identity, self-discovery, the centrality of place, cultural survival, and the healing power of language and spirituality. Class discussions will incorporate literary, historical, and ethnographic perspectives of Native expressive culture and the agency of authors as artists and activists vis-à-vis the wider American literary tradition. Authors include Sherman Alexie, Nicholas Black Elk, Louise Erdrich, D'Arcy McNickle, N. Scott Momaday, Linda Hogan, Winona LaDuke, and Leonard Peltier.

This course explores the interconnections between health, nutrition, and poverty in low- and middle-income countries. The course will examine how poor health and malnutrition perpetuate poverty, and how poverty in turn undermines health and nutritional outcomes. Drawing on perspectives from economics, public health, and development studies, the course introduces theoretical and empirical evidence to analyze interventions such as nutrition programs, cash transfers, agricultural policies, and health systems reforms. Students will engage with both academic literature and real-world case studies, with an emphasis on understanding policy design and evaluation.

This course examines the contemporary and historical politics of poverty in the United States. How policy and political actors frame both the causes of poverty and wealth, and the capabilities and rights of those experiencing poverty has led to varying policy responses throughout history. The assumptions underlying these debates and policies not only have long lineages, but also have intended and unintended consequences on those experiencing or near poverty. The readings and class discussion will bring together a theoretical understanding of the scholarly debates surrounding poverty and the empirical consequences of policies emanating from those debates. These policies include the spheres of cash assistance and the labor market, healthcare, food assistance, housing, family and childcare, tax, and broader economic configurations. We will focus as well on the actors and political processes (legislative, administrative, and judicial) at the heart of these efforts. By extension, this course will deepen the students' understandings of the role of ideologies, individuals, and institutions in shaping and responding to problems in our society.

This is an advanced, three credit undergraduate course focused on (1) the neuroscience of addiction; (2) emotional and physical consequences of addiction; (3) societal and sociocultural influences on and outcomes addiction; and (4) treatment of addiction. The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with current knowledge of addiction and its etiopathophysiological origins across the lifespan. We will adopt a transactional perspective, which is infused throughout the class. According to this perspective, addiction cannot be understood as a static, adevelopmental entity. Rather, addiction emerges from complex transactions between biological vulnerabilities (e.g., genetic, neural) and environmental risk factors (e.g., family exposure, deviant peer group affiliations, neighborhood risk) over time. No one plans to become addicted, yet addiction is among the costliest public health concerns facing the U.S. Despite claims that addiction has been destigmatized, traditional conceptualizations that blame character deficiencies such as "weak will" and lack of discipline still permeate our culture. As a result, the U.S. stands alone among Western industrialized nations in the extent to which we stigmatize and criminalize addiction. Rather than treat addiction as a disorder, we incarcerate users, many of whom become felons with limited opportunities for future employment, advanced education, and long-term recovery. Moreover, despite similar rates of both drug use and addiction across racial and cultural groups, large race disparities in arrest rates and sentencing are observed. In this class, we will take a holistic approach to addiction by exploring neurobiological, cultural, and sociopolitical contributors.

In this course, students will learn what poverty is, how it is measured, and how it is alleviated. We will cover the history and geography of poverty internationally, as well as the effectiveness of anti-poverty policies in the United States. Students will be introduced to modern economic research on poverty and anti-poverty policy. This is a required course for economics majors in the Evidence-Based Poverty Alleviation Concentration (EBPAC).

This course explores concepts such as microfinance, MSME (Micro-Small-Medium Enterprise) development, bottom of the pyramid, fair trade, and impact investing - with a focus on their opportunity for social impact, and as a vehicle for wealth creation in vulnerable and disenfranchised communities across the globe. Further, the course covers examples of various social enterprise models (for-profit, non-profit, hybrid), requiring students to analyze and devise strategies to improve the efficacy of these ventures.

This course introduces the foundational theories of human-centered design (HCD), its critiques, and the subsequent development of design principles, followed by a practical, hands-on exploration of HCD methods. It approaches design as a broadly applicable practice across multiple domains, including – but not limited to – social innovation and computing for social good. The course is organized into four modules. The first module examines the foundations of HCD, its critiques, and its evolution toward community-driven, value-aligned, and justice-oriented approaches. The next two modules provide hands-on experience in design research, prototyping, and reflection, where students learn to integrate technical, ethical, and social insights into actionable design strategies. In the final module, students will address real-world design challenges drawn from domains such as global development, sustainability, and public policy. The course welcomes students from the social entrepreneurship and innovation minor, global affairs, computer science and engineering, poverty studies, business, public policy, science-technology-values, and peace studies who are interested in designing for social impact.

Put your education to work for justice. The study of justice—discerning how to know what is right, just and fair---is an ancient, multi-disciplinary pursuit. This interdisciplinary course offers students a foundational understanding of this rich theoretical tradition while also providing them with the research tools and skills to both explain and indeed respond to today’s most challenging questions of justice in the areas of environment, labor, incarceration, migration, poverty, and technology. What does it mean to live and act justly, both individually and collectively? Explore the answers in Doing Justice.

This three-credit letter-graded course is restricted to students who participated in the Summer Service Learning Program (SSLP) in the summer of 2022 and were abroad in the Fall of 2022. Only students who were accepted to the SSLP and have signed a contract for a placement are eligible to take this course. This course provides students with an introduction to an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and responding to poverty, with lectures from experts in History, Political Science, Gender Studies, Poverty Studies, Theology, and Sociology. Students in this course will gain skills and resources for the demanding work of providing direct services to individuals living in poverty, while also developing capacity to critically analyze contemporary social issues. While the course will equip students to identify causes and symptoms of inequality and poverty, it also endeavors to provide students with a Catholic moral framework for evaluating competing notions of justice and to be able to propose and defend cogent moral arguments for constructive courses of action to alleviate suffering and injustice. The weekly themes of the course are drawn from the Catholic social tradition, such as human dignity, solidarity, the common good, and the preferential option for the poor. The course examines these concepts from within the religious context of Catholic thought by way of weekly readings of foundational Scripture passages, papal social encyclicals such as Laudato Si and Solicitudo rei socialis, and contemporary Catholic theologians. Weekly assignments ask students not merely to factually relate Catholic tenets, but to inhabit the moral perspective of Catholic social tradition and to offer first-person arguments for how members of society ought to respond in the face of human suffering and inequality.

A total of approximately 1.4 billion Catholics are found in virtually every country in the world. Since the 1960s their global religious community, the Roman Catholic Church, has embraced the mission of advancing integral human development as a comprehensive approach to Catholicism's commitment to upholding the God-given dignity of every person, regardless of race, religion, creed or any other marker of identity. What difference do Catholics make in a world beset by growing inequality, human rights violations, poverty, war, and the environmental and refugee crises? Focusing on the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, Uganda and Italy, this course examines the impact of Catholics and the Church in these countries, with an emphasis on the modern history and contemporary social, political, cultural and interreligious dynamics of each. Students will be expected to master the comparative narratives of regions and countries where Catholics might be expected to make a difference, and to focus on one country in depth.

Gender has been fundamental to the organization of nearly all human societies, but what gender has meant in terms of identity, opportunity, and economic activity has varied widely across time and space. This course will explore gender at work in US history, taking a chronological approach to show gender's evolution and ongoing intersections with class, race, age, religion, region, and sexuality from 1776 to the near present. The term "gender at work" expresses a double meaning here -- first, it connotes that this is a labor history course, with an emphasis on the ways gender has operated at the workplace; second, it suggests the ubiquity of gender in shaping Americans' lives, experiences, and imaginations not only at the workplace, but also in formal politics, informal communities, and every space in between. By exploring the ways gender has been both omnipresent and contingent throughout US history, students should better understand -- and perhaps act upon -- seemingly intractable contemporary conundrums involving questions of equal opportunity and pay, household division of labor, work-life balance, and the proper relationships among employers, workers, households, and government.

This applied research methods course will allow students to examine research as a driver of change in poverty studies. Throughout this course students will learn a variety of research methods that will equip them with the skills to engage research that in some way seeks to disrupt, reduce, or abolish poverty. Students will learn the foundations of applied research through qualitative and quantitative methods including sampling basics, grounded ethnographic approaches, survey design and the utilization of secondary sources. Students will also engage with experiential learning that is focused on problem-based goals and relevant applications in the area of poverty. This course will create an opportunity for students to learn practical approaches to data identification, collection, analysis and dissemination. It will include a lecture and seminar-based format where students are introduced to key concepts in research methods as well as hands-on opportunities to practice what they've learned in collaboration with community partnerships. At the end of this course, students will have the strategies, tools and confidence to handle complex data, to develop practical solutions to current challenges, and develop a clearer understanding of the varying ways knowledge can be created and accessed. The course will culminate in a group research project proposal.

Labor & America since 1945 explores the constantly contested, always evolving relationships among and between workers, employers, government policymakers, unions, and social movements since the end of World War II, as well as the ways those relationships have shaped and been shaped by American politics and culture more broadly. The United States emerged from the Second World War as the globe's unequaled economic and political power, and its citizens parlayed that preeminence into a long postwar economic boom that created, however imperfectly, the first truly mass middle-class society in world history. At the heart of that new society was the American labor movement, whose leaders and members ensured that at least some of the heady postwar profits made it into the wallets of workers and their families, and not just the wallets of union members, as working Americans generally experienced great improvement in wages, benefits, and economic opportunity during the quarter-century ending in the early 1970s. During those same years, civil rights activists challenged the historic workplace discrimination that kept African Americans at the bottom at the labor market and on the margins of the economy. As black workers confronted the racism of employers, unionists, white workers, and government leaders, they inspired others, from Mexican Americans to women to persons with disabilities, to broaden the push for equality at the workplace. By 1980, the American workplace had been fundamentally transformed in a span of only a few decades. Beginning in the early 1970s, however, Americans began facing other, often unexpected challenges in the world of work: the rapid erosion of manufacturing and a boom in new service occupations; a precipitous decline in the number of union members and the power of organized labor; and new conflicts over attempts to redress centuries of racial and gender discrimination. Meanwhile, income inequality and wealth disparities have grown significantly over the past four decades. What accounts for the decline of organized labor, and why have the people of the mythic land of milk and honey experienced less upward mobility and widening gaps between the rich and everyone else? Are these phenomena linked? What has the decline of the labor movement meant for workers specifically, and the American economy and politics more broadly? How and why have popular perceptions of unions changed over time? What has been the relationship of organized labor to the civil rights movement, feminism, modern conservatism, and the fortunes of individual freedom more broadly? What is globalization, and what has been its impact upon American workers? Through an exploration of historical scholarship, memoirs, polemical writings, and films, students in this course will confront these questions and many others. We will also address the prospects for working people and labor unions in the twenty-first century.

This course examines the financial and economic tools that support sustainable solutions to social challenges, with a focus beyond traditional government aid and philanthropy. Students will explore the rapidly expanding fields of impact investing and microfinance, evaluating their roles in advancing social entrepreneurship, broad-based wealth creation, and equality of opportunity. Topics include emerging approaches to microcredit, the benefits and limitations of financial innovations, and the role of public policy in fostering effective initiatives. Through a combination of case studies, critical analyses, and applied projects, students will engage directly with real-world challenges such as poverty alleviation and inclusive economic development. No prior background in business or finance is required; the course is designed for students from all disciplines who bring curiosity, creativity, and a commitment to social problem-solving.

This course is designed to introduce students to Mexico's modern history and its people. We will pay particular attention to political and artistic movements during the Porfiriato (1876-1910), the Revolution (1910-1938), and the post-revolutionary period (1938-1970s). We will include a detailed discussion of the recent disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, in the State of Guerrero.Students will examine what it meant to be a "militant" in the political world of artistic production and social movements and the different ways in which the Mexican state responded to this militancy. We will explore how and why a broad range of representative leaders of Mexico's most important political and cultural revolutions used paintings, murals, graphic art, cartoons, literature, music, film, and graffiti to (A) lead a social, cultural, and political restructuring of their respective communities; (B) export their unique notions of "Revolution" to the nation and the world; and (C) question the contradictions that some artists (at times) faced within their own revolutionary movements.

This interdisciplinary research lab enlists students in the interdisciplinary efforts of the Just Wage Initiative (JWI), a collaborative research and advocacy project of the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns. Students will help develop, refine, and update the Just Wage Framework, a multistakeholder online tool designed to advance a more inclusive and equitable economy. Students will also undertake research projects connecting their own intellectual interests and disciplinary expertise to the JWI's foundational question: What makes any given wage just or unjust? In addition, students will collaborate with the instructor and local, national, and international practitioners to envision and execute advocacy campaigns to promote a just wage economy. Extended weekly class sessions will facilitate visits by scholars and activists, interactive group discussions, and collaborative experiments.

In 1964, when Martha Reeves sang, "Calling out around the world/Are you ready for a brand new beat?/Summer's here and the time is right/For dancing in the street," was she beckoning listeners to join a party or the civil rights struggle? Or both? From spirituals sung by enslaved workers to protest anthems shouted at union rallies, music has provided the soundtrack to social justice causes throughout American History. Whether performed by rank-and-file reformers or famous recording artists -- from Frank Sinatra to Nina Simone to Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, and beyond -- popular music has accompanied and sometimes fueled transformations in American politics, culture, and social life. In this course students will explore American popular music in its many forms -- blues, country, jazz, folk, rock, punk, disco, hip hop, tejano, and more -- to understand its power and limits as both a force for social change and a window into major themes of the American experience.

This course will devote the first part of the semester to establishing an account of the historical roots of the current affordable/low-income housing crisis in the United States, paying particular attention to the local St. Joseph County context. It will also introduce students to the housing “continuum of care” in the City of South Bend, noting the various institutional and governmental agencies currently involved in addressing housing needs as well as the gaps in coverage, e.g., the need for a permanent low-barrier intake center and more permanent supportive housing (PSH). The second part of the course will involve constructive and innovative engagement as students collaborate on specific research projects introduced in the first part of the course. Students will have the opportunity to network with area housing agencies and local government entities as well as research best practices in other urban areas. During this segment of the course, students will engage with experts in the field, both virtually and in person. This work will lead into students’ constructive proposals for a concrete contribution to meeting the current low-income and supportive housing needs locally, regionally, and/or nationally. All these signs of the times will be held in conversation with the Catholic social tradition, exploring the concept of housing as a human right and duty in service of the common good. We will also use the CST concept of integral ecology to understand the social, economic, and ecological aspects of the current housing crisis, in conversation with Laudato si’, Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical.

The course adopts an entrepreneurial perspective in exploring the role of business in helping to address the poverty challenge in developing and developed economies. The multi-faceted nature of poverty and its implications when it comes to business and entrepreneurship are explored. Attention is devoted to venture creation as a pathway out of poverty, and to how the larger business community can be leveraged in poverty alleviation efforts. Students will examine case studies and meet low income entrepreneurs.

This course examines the origins, development, and continued relevance of Catholic social teaching (CST), providing a comprehensive overview of modern CST through examination of key papal encyclicals and Church documents. Participants will be guided through a study of key documents, learning about their application to contemporary social issues. This course is intended to give students a rich grounding in the social doctrine of the Church, and students will apply CST to topics of social concern, including poverty, migration, democracy, globalization, homelessness, and the environment. Students will also gain a deep understanding of foundational concepts such as human dignity, the common good, solidarity, and integral human development. Finally, taking the “field hospital” image of the Church that Pope Francis calls for, this course concludes with asking what would our anticipated professional vocations look like if informed by ideas such as the common good and solidarity? Classes will be participatory and interactive; student engagement is welcomed with peer-to-peer learning a feature in addition to lecturer input.

This course examines global poverty through the lens of Catholic social teaching. Poverty implies more than lack of income or wealth; as Pope Francis reminds us, the worst form of poverty is exclusion. Rising levels of poverty and inequality result in the exclusion of many people from full social, economic, cultural participation, and hinders the realization of several human rights. The dignity of all human beings, made in God’s image and likeness, is a foundational theological belief within the Christian tradition. But how might this theological statement help us understand the damaging effects of poverty, and how can CST more generally critique prevailing economic assumptions that disproportionately benefit the wealthy? Students will examine the global dimension of poverty and inequality by studying its impact on health outcomes, education, women’s empowerment, and democracy. In addition to studying CST principles such as integral human development, solidarity, and the common good, students will draw from the work of economists like Amartya Sen who advocate for a human capabilities approach to development. Case studies will help illustrate the ways in which CST principles can inform local responses to injustice, for example, micro-credit initiatives in Bangladesh. Bringing together the capabilities approach and CST allows for deeper intersectional thinking on issues concerning poverty, inequality, global health, and the empowerment of the poor. Classes will be participatory and interactive; student engagement is welcomed with peer-to-peer learning a feature in addition to lecturer input.

We will examine the consequences of upholding literacy as both a "civil" and "human" right and consider what counts as literacy, who is counted among the "literate," and the ways that language and power impact schooling and education.Topics include what some reports describe as the challenges to 21st century literacy, tensions and conflicts in the teaching and learning of literacy in urban public schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and future directions for the field of language, literacy, and culture. Ultimately, the readings, documentaries, films, and discussions will address the intersections of race, power, literacy, and equity in schools in the context of neo-liberal reforms in education. These reforms have led to increased privatization of schools, school choice, school closures, and increasing focus on standards, testing, and accountability, each fueling the school-to-prison pipeline that denies a disproportionate number of students of color from having access to a quality education. In the end, we will consider the importance of viewing educational opportunities through the lenses of human and civil rights.

The relationship between health and poverty is complex and challenging. The inability of the poor to maintain adequate nutrition, shelter and have access to preventative medical care can contribute to their poor health status. But even if one isn't poor, one illness or hospitalization can test their ability to meet the financial burden of their medical care as well as their other needs. In either case, individuals have to face difficult choices between their health and other material needs. This course examines the consequences of the health risks the poor face and the difficulties that they have in obtaining medical care whether they are uninsured, seek charitable care, or utilize public programs such as Medicaid. The course will also examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act that will require all individuals to have at least a minimal level of health care coverage.

Children are the embodiment of our collective future. The resources that are devoted to children represent as much an investment in our future as does improving our infrastructure or conducting research. Historically the primary responsibility for the raising and nurturing of children has resided with their parents. But when the parents are unable or have difficulty meeting this important responsibility, the public has devised policies and programs to ranging from taking over this responsibility to providing assistance to parents. The purpose of this course will be to examine the extent that parents direct resources to children to provide children with food, clothing, shelter, education, medical services needed for their development and how the public assists parents providing tax credits (child credits, dependent care credits, and the Earned Income Tax Credit) and other forms of financial assistance or the direct provision of goods and services (TANF, food stamps, school meals programs, WIC, housing and utility assistance, public education, provision of health insurance, child care subsidies, and early childhood programs). The course will also examine the role of child support and custody laws as the public's response to when one parent decides not to reside with the other parent to raise their children. Finally the course will examine the public's response when the parents are judged to unable to care for their children (Child Protective Services, Foster Care, and the juvenile justice system).

Racial Justice in America is focused on the historic and current impact of racial injustice and the urgency of the work of racial justice today. Racial Justice in America will invite course participants to consider how the stories of the struggle for racial justice in the United States shapes our imaginations for the work of racial justice today. The centerpiece of this course is a required spring break immersion to major civil rights locations in the South. Additionally, students will read/reflect on how we tell the stories of racism in the United States and will create their own narrative/reflective account of their experience with racism and the civil rights movement sites.

This research lab will employ an interdisciplinary approach to research on a range of issues related to mass incarceration. Collaborating with faculty, scholars, activists, practitioners, those impacted by systems of incarceration, and other classmates, students will develop, refine and implement a research project which contributes to the overall body of scholarship on incarceration. Students will be able to design projects (exploring moral, normative, and/or empirical etc. dimensions of incarceration) which connect their own academic and intellectual interests to emerging research questions at the Institute for Social Concerns. This research lab is open to students in all disciplines.

Environmental justice has emerged as one of the most significant frameworks shaping contemporary environmental policy and scholarship at local, national, and international scales. Less well known is that it originated and has been led at the grassroots level with social movements making connections between racial, gender, and economic justice, political empowerment, and vastly unequal exposure to environmental harms and hazards. In short, the meanings, values, strategies, and concepts that make up the environmental justice (EJ) framework have been driven by grassroots leaders and organizations with a transformative vision. This course in environmental humanities and social sciences examines this transformative approach to EJ as it has emerged in places as diverse as rural North Carolina, urban New York, Louisiana's “Cancer Alley,” tropical forests around the world, and most recently transnational networks of grassroots leaders responding to climate change. Through interdisciplinary engagement with scholarship in environmental studies, religion, ethics, history, sociology, anthropology, and politics, as well as analysis of primary source documents, this course equips students to analyze the dynamic relationship between human cultures and environmental realities at local and global scales. In particular, it equips students to answer questions such as: To what extent has the EJ movement been shaped by religion and culture? How do transformative approaches to EJ differ from other approaches? How do diverse concepts of the sacred, nature, and justice factor into contemporary debates about environmental and climate action? What moral and political resources do EJ communities draw on to sustain their commitments? What commitments inform students’ personal approach to EJ issues?

The early childhood years are a time of heightened biological and environmental responsiveness that coincides with the most rapid period of neurological growth in human development. These crucial years build the foundation for cognitive, emotional, and social competencies, where essential skills such as language acquisition, motor skills, and social interactions are developed; the experiences and interactions a child has can significantly influence their ability to reach these milestones. Failure to thrive in the early years is associated with not only short-term physical, cognitive, and social-emotional maladjustment but also poor adult health and labor market outcomes. Investing in this critical period of early childhood development (ECD) is one of the most cost-effective ways to address the negative individual and societal effects of poverty, and can significantly enhance developmental outcomes, setting the stage for lifelong well-being. This interdisciplinary course explores the intersection of ECD science and poverty alleviation initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. It aims to provide students with a solid understanding of how early brain development is influenced by socio-economic factors and how evidence-based interventions can promote brain health and school readiness while also addressing developmental disparities. Students will engage with current research, theoretical frameworks, and practical strategies to promote optimal development in impoverished and crisis-affected contexts and prevent intergenerational poverty. This course is relevant for students interested in applying the science of early child development to social issues and working in fields related to psychology, neuroscience, education, public health, or social policy.

This course explores the rhetorical history and dynamics of what has been called the feminization of poverty, comparing statistics and stories in scholarly and popular media that often tell conflicting narratives of who is poor and why. We will ask how the picture of poverty has evolved over time exploring such representations as: Dorothea Lange's 1936 documentary photograph of the Migrant Mother, Ronald Reagan's 1976 caricature of the Welfare Queen, the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, and Katherine Boo's 2012 book Behind the Beautiful Forevers. What does poverty look like in modern media (news, books, films, theatre, etc.)? Who gets to tell that story? How can we contribute to that conversation? To what extent do these representations not only reflect but shape public opinion and public policy? These questions will be grounded in theories and research on the intersection of gender, poverty, race, and rhetoric. They will also be framed by students' original community-based research supported by local community partners whose social service addresses gender and poverty. Community engagement time is limited and flexible. Final projects may be composed as traditional research or creative works.

This course considers the nature, causes, and consequences of poverty in rural areas of the US, and public policies designed to help persons and poor communities improve their well-being. We will read materials from multiple disciplines including economics, sociology, psychology, law, public policy, literature, and possibly others. We will begin by defining rural America and constructing a profile of the inhabitants with particular emphasis given to inhabitants living in poverty. Having identified the persistently poor rural population and and their communities, we will investigate the economic, political, social, and cultural systems and institutions that contribute to their poverty and obstacles that must be overcome. We will then review past and present policies, programs, and projects targeted at poverty alleviation and economic development, and consider prospects for the future. Throughout the course we will consider what we have learned that is unique about rural poverty as distinguished from poverty within metropolitan areas. The is course is open to all undergraduate students. It is strongly encouraged that you have preciously taken Introduction to Poverty Studies (PS 23000), but it is not required.

Poverty situations differ from each other; being poor in South Bend is different from being poor in London or the Bhutanese village Chamkhar. Responses have to be context-sensitive and have to respect local particularities. They have to offer concrete solutions to social challenges; this encourages the development of social innovations, both as interventions and as creative initiatives by people challenged by poverty themselves. The course explores "good practices" and "good examples" as well as failed attempts to respond to poverty through a series of case studies. We will look at social innovations as contextual responses to poverty in a particular setting. Three questions will be pursued: 1) How can responses to poverty situations do justice to a local context? 2) Which lessons can be learnt from good and also from disturbing practices for poverty alleviation/reduction efforts in general? 3) Which concrete social innovation can be developed in the light of lessons learnt and experience on the ground? In exploring the first question we will look at what can be called "contextual ethical reasoning;" the second question will look especially at the role of social innovations; the third question indicates the ambition to make this course an interactive laboratory to develop a social innovation in cooperation with a local community partner from South Bend. The course has includes a defining community-based element.

This course cross-fertilizes two broad areas of inquiry: social stratification research and the sociology of development. The goal of the course is to acquaint students with perspectives seeking to explain the dynamics of social mobility and inequality in low-income developing countries.

This course is designed to introduce students to the cultural and social issues of the Appalachian region - its history, people, culture, challenges, and strengths - through study and experiential learning. The course also provides engagement with the people of Appalachia through a required immersion over break. The Appalachia Seminar utilizes a Catholic Social Tradition (CST) framework to build skills around social analysis, critical thinking, and theological reflection. Students examine the relationship between solidarity and service and consider how the Common Good is expressed in local communities across the region. This course has a fee.

The Catholic Social Tradition invites persons of good will to pursue a health care system that raises the dignity of each person. This seminar examines and assesses our current and evolving healthcare system, explores the possibilities and direction of the future of U.S. healthcare, and investigates how modifications might move us toward a society that reflects care for the common good. Students will travel to Washington, D.C., during Spring Break to spend time with policy makers, health care advocacy groups, medical professionals, and researchers.

This course provides undergraduate students an opportunity to reflect on their undergraduate education and to explore their respective vocations as it relates to the common good. Whether considering a change in major, deciding on postgraduate plans, navigating a relationship, or seeking greater intentionality in daily life, students in this class will accompany each other as they consider their vocation, learn different methods of discernment, and develop practices to listen and respond to these callings. Content will include Catholic Social Teaching, cultural critique, narrative theology, spiritual practices, and the arts. Must be a sophomore, junior or senior to take this course.

Solidarity and the City explores the principle and practice of solidarity in the context of U.S. cities. Students will examine the root causes of poverty and injustice in urban areas, will work on individual and group assignments that apply that learning to specific issues of justice, and will participate in a Spring Break immersion to a city to learn/work alongside partners engaging issues of particular importance in context.

This course will take place in a local neighborhood and students will learn fundamental concepts and skills of community organizing alongside residents of South Bend. Together, neighbors and students will learn the art of organizing through relational meetings, house meetings, power-mapping, and research actions. The culmination of the course will include participation in a public action with local officials addressing a pressing issue in our community. Through a series of trainings and hands-on application, students will build public relationships, amplify their voices, cultivate power and leverage it for justice.

This course introduces some of the issues behind recent calls to reform the US criminal legal system, including mass incarceration and supervision, racial disproportionality, and the challenges of "reentry." But the heart of the course is our exploration of deeper concerns, including why our criminal legal system relies on punishment, how we might cultivate other forms of justice, and what responsibility we have for the systems that operate in our names. As part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, the course involves inside students (people incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, IN) and outside students (people enrolled at Notre Dame, St. Marys, or Holy Cross) learning with and from one another and breaking new ground together. Most weeks of the semester, outside students will travel to Westville for class sessions with the inside students. All students are responsible for the same reading and writing assignments, and participate together in class activities and discussions. Together, we will examine myths and realities related to crime and to punishment, explore the effects of current criminal legal policies, and develop ideas for responding more effectively to harm and violence in our communities. Apply online via the CSC website: socialconcerns.nd.edu.

This course is intended for students electing to fulfill the PSIM experiential learning requirement through internships while studying abroad (Option B). Students must complete 3 credits of experiential learning total, but may do so in one, two, or three separate internships with corresponding credit each semester they participate in an internship, or in the following Fall semester if the internship takes place over the summer. Students will determine credit value with their internship advisor and a Poverty Studies director. For 3 credits, a student must complete 80 to 100 hours total during one semester or approximately 8 to 10 hours per week for 10 weeks, including time at the site and with the internship advisor. A 2-credit internship requires 50 to 70 total hours (or 5-7 hours for 10 weeks) and a 1-credit internship would involve 30 to 50 total hours (or 3-5 hours for 10 weeks).

The Social Concerns Internship enables students to actively engage with a social concern related to the complex layers of poverty. The primary goals for the internship are to enhance students' education framework, expand community-engaged service, and widen their understanding of local and global poverty. By pairing students with community partner organizations, students will work with people who are directly impacted by conditions of poverty. Through mentorships and guided fieldwork, students will focus on getting to know community members as individuals, learning personal narratives, expanding perspectives, and developing professional skills for working with community organizations. Students can understand the lives of the people they would like to engage with and be more in tune with the intersectional aspects that hinder their daily lives. Internships cover a wide range of social concerns, including education, healthcare, legal services, housing, hunger, labor, and community-building efforts. Through a catholic social teaching and social justice framework, the internships aim to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship where they can debunk assumptions about people, communities, and systems, as well as contribute to the efforts of the many organizations attempting to address this pressing problem. The Social Concerns Internship is open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have completed a relevant foundational course such as CST 33001, PS 23000, or Political Science students who have received departmental permission from Carolina Arroyo (carroyo@nd.edu). Students may propose other relevant foundational courses as the prerequisite as well. The course will meet in person for a bi-weekly course work rotation on Wednesdays 2:20pm-3:35pm. Please email Lulu Moyo at lmoyo@nd.edu by December 12th and an application will be sent to you along with further information.

This is a required course for students choosing to satisfy the experiential learning requirement through 3 designated one-credit Center for Social Concerns seminars (Option A). Enrollment is recommended concurrent with the last seminar credit or no later than the following semester. Students will complete a project or 5-7 page paper intended to show an integration of learning between their community engagement and a broader understanding of poverty.

Students electing to fulfill the experiential learning requirement through internships in the community (Option B) may do so by enrolling in PS 35002. Students must complete 3 credits total, but may do so in one, two, or three separate internships with corresponding credit, enrolling in PS 35002 each semester they are participating in an internship, or in the Fall semester if the internship takes place over the summer. Students will determine credit value with their internship advisor and a Poverty Studies director. For 3 credits, a student must complete 80 to 100 hours total during one semester or approximately 8 to 10 hours per week for 10 weeks, including time at the site and with the internship advisor. A 2-credit internship requires 50 to 70 total hours (or 5-7 hours for 10 weeks) and a 1-credit internship would involve 30 to 50 total hours (or 3-5 hours for 10 weeks). Students may arrange to intern for more or less than 10 weeks during the semester they are enrolled in PS 35002 and can adjust the weekly hours to correspond to the required total.

This course provides students with an opportunity to explore readings and research as directed by an assigned faculty member in the department. It is offered by arrangement with individual instructors. This course may be used to satisfy a PS elective requirement.

If, as John David Rhodes argues, “the detached single family home is one of the most powerful metonymic signifiers of American cultural life – of the dreams of privacy, enclosure, freedom, autonomy, independence, stability, and prosperity that animate national life in the United States,” that is not to say that then home in American cinema is by no means a simple or stable construct, but is, if anything, represented most often as troubled, precarious, invaded, porous, unstable, or out of reach. This class considers meanings of home in American cinema by looking at films that confront the problem of how to live in a home, offer alternate structures, and show the fantasy of home to be out of reach. The class will analyze films about unhoused figures during the Depression, housing shortages during World War II, the rise of modern homelessness in the 1980s, and contemporary precarity. We will consider fantasies of home related to family, class status, age, and race. We will consider the roles of banks, landlords, gentrification, and other institutions and structural causes of home insecurity and homelessness. Students will read various theories and histories of housing and homelessness to frame understanding of films. Students will write weekly one page reflections, an 8-10 page paper, and a 15 minute conference presentation. Application is required. Go to: https://forms.gle/gXFRBj6TdAqsK9BG8 to complete and submit application.

The main emphasis of the course will be to study the diseases important to both the developed and developing world. Basic principles of public health, epidemiology, infectious disease microbiology, immunology, and engineering application will be learned utilizing both local and global examples. Particular emphasis will be given to diseases transmitted by water. As a complement to environmental engineering design classes, this class will focus upon the disease agents removed in properly designed municipal water and waste systems.

n a world ever more connected, and inhabited by an increasing human population, the number of infectious disease outbreaks is rising. Understanding the epidemiology of viruses, bacteria, and parasites is crucial for the design of strategies to interrupt transmission. In the last two decades, molecular methods to study DNA, RNA, proteins, and antibodies have increasingly been used for such studies. Diagnosis by molecular tools increases the sensitivity over traditional methods such as microscopy. The genetic diversity of the pathogen and the host can be exploited to identify genes responsible for drug resistance, or to establish transmission networks. Antibody measurements allow the study of the human response to infection. This course will provide an overview of current laboratory methods to study infectious disease dynamics and discuss examples from the literature.

The course applies the tools of economic and public policy analysis to the study of poverty. There will be an emphasis throughout on existing research in economics, using theoretical tools and micro-econometric methods, as well as policy examples from a variety of contexts worldwide. The course aims to give students an understanding of the existing epistemological definitions and measurements of poverty; the causes and self-reinforcement mechanisms of deprivation; the prevalence of poverty and severity trends worldwide; existing best practices for poverty reduction, and modern principles of poverty policy design. By the end of the course, students should (i) have an overview of the global trends and characteristics of poverty; (ii) read specialized literature and apply their knowledge of economic theory and econometrics to the design, implementation, and evaluation of poverty policy; and (iii) understand the critical debates in thinking about deprivation at a global scale.

This class explores the use of marketing principles and concepts to support initiatives, causes and ventures that are social in nature. Attention is devoted to the marketing and communication challenges involved when attempting to do good, and how these issues can be overcome without spending large amounts of money. Sample topics include identifying and understanding target markets for social initiatives, constructing a value proposition, developing positioning approaches, designing communication programs, use of guerrilla techniques, the roles of price and place, and how to set goals and measure performance.

Students, in a structured format, are involved in assessing, prioritizing and creatively solving problems encountered by low-income and other disadvantaged South Bend entrepreneurs. A process consulting approach is employed and a number of useful tools and frameworks are introduced. Students work with both for-profit and non-profit enterprises, producing tangible deliverables that help clients launch, grow and sustain their ventures. In addition to class time, students will meet with clients on a weekly basis at a Notre Dame facility located downtown. Assistance with transportation will be available for students needing it. Class will meet on Tuesdays. On Thursdays, students will consult with local entrepreneurs in one hour blocks during the hours of 5p to 9p at the Center for Civic Innovation. This consulting time is flexible with students' schedules and based on appointments made by local entrepreneurs.

Lab/Screening for FTT 40126 Home/Homelessness in US Cinema

This course invites students to explore the ways writing can develop our moral imagination about what poverty is and what our world could be without poverty. We will read and write intensively in a wide variety of genres and modes--memoir, podcasts, letters, poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and more. Class will include active participation from students through rhetorical analysis of published texts and workshopping of peer writing to create a portfolio of diverse expressions, insights, and arguments about poverty and injustice. Students will have the opportunity to meet experienced writers and advocates who write for social change. We will seek inspiration and insight through community-engaged and campus speakers and events that will prompt us to complicate and elevate our understanding of why poverty exists and what we can do now and throughout our lives to make change. Introduction to Poverty Studies or an equivalent course is desired but not required.

This course provides students with an opportunity to explore readings and research in a tutorial setting. It is offered by arrangement with the individual instructor. This course may be used to satisfy a PS elective requirement.

Special studies with one of the Minor's affiliated faculty. In this case the student will produce a product (manuscript, work or art, composition, poster board display of research results, etc.) that can be displayed, and will present this product to the members of the PSIM at a special colloquium held in the Spring Semester of each academic year.

This interdisciplinary research lab enlists students in the efforts of the Just Wage Initiative (JWI), a collaborative research and advocacy project of the Higgins Labor Program at the Center for Social Concerns. Students will help develop, refine, and update the Just Wage Framework, a multistakeholder online tool designed to advance a more inclusive and equitable economy. Students will also undertake research projects connecting their own intellectual interests and disciplinary expertise to the JWI's foundational question: What makes any given wage just or unjust? In addition, students will collaborate with the instructor and local, national, and international practitioners to envision and execute collaborative research and advocacy campaigns to promote a just wage economy. Extended weekly class sessions will feature visits by scholars and activists, as well as facilitate interactive group discussions and collaborative experiments.

This seminar will allow advanced students to research youth poverty and educational access/success informed by related justice questions (e.g., racial equality, incarceration). Students will draw from youth development theory, educational and social science research, and related literature (e.g., restorative justice in education) to examine a research question of personal interest, building on a local community partnership or initiative. Students will produce research representing the cumulative weight of their learning in the course and in the minor. They will share a version of their project (research report, work of art, digital resource, poster display, or like) representing their subject mastery at a concluding public forum. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for students in the Poverty Studies minor.

Lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson says, “In too many places, the opposite of poverty is not wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice.” This course will consider this claim as we advance our understanding of how to abolish poverty in the United States. Matthew Desmond’s book Poverty, By America will provide a foundation for our discussion based on the experience in the room and additional books and readings that will challenge and expand our collective knowledge. Together, we will research programs and practices that have and have not worked to disrupt poverty, including our investment in mass incarceration. And together, we will develop our moral imagination for what could work to create a place where everyone has what they need to flourish and live a just life. As part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, this course involves inside students (people incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, IN), outside students (people enrolled at Notre Dame, St. Mary’s, or Holy Cross College), and Indiana Department of Corrections staff (who work inside and live outside of Westville Correctional Facility). All students participate equally, learning with and from one another and breaking new ground together. Most weeks of the semester, outside students will travel to Westville, go through prison security, and partake in class sessions inside Westville Correctional Facility. All students are responsible for the same reading and writing assignments and participate together in class activities and discussions using only those resources available to all the students. Class time includes the class session at the prison as well as travel time to and from the prison. Full attendance is essential. Apply online via the SOCO website: socialconcerns.nd.edu.