UWS 12B — Domestic Labor: Class, Race, and Gender

[ uws ]

This course introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
In 2018, the nation’s first ever Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was proposed. If successful, this legislation will be the culmination of years of lobbying to address the forces of classism, racism, and sexism that have contributed to the subjugation and devaluing of domestic workers and the labor they perform, including but not limited to: housekeeping, cooking, and childcare. In this course, we will examine literary and popular representations of 20th and 21st century domestic labor alongside interdisciplinary theory and scholarship to investigate how and why domestic workers have been, and continue to be, underpaid and undervalued. This course considers the social, cultural, and economic conditions and systems that underpin the pervasive exploitation of domestic labor in the U.S. and abroad.
Courtney Pina Miller

Close