This course explores how different societies, at different times, negotiate what we can and should buy and sell on the market—and how we assign value to commodities that are morally contested or difficult to categorize. Using materials from the social sciences, philosophy, legal studies, and the humanities, we will examine the complicated relationship between economic and non-economic spheres of social life; how different cultures delimit this relationship; and how people constantly negotiate the boundaries of commodification. As we will see, at times this negotiation happens at the interpersonal level, while other times it involves larger institutions, as when governments ban certain forms of economic exchange on moral grounds. Looking at different cases and topics, we will explore how all cultures of commodification are entangled with norms and ideas related to race, gender, ethnicity, and class.

In this course we ask how gender matters in the work we do. We discuss the multiple ways in which gender organizes economic life and our perceptions of the value of different kinds of paid and unpaid labor. Whose work counts, and whose doesn't, and how do these valuations change or become contested? How does gender intersect with inequalities of race, class, and citizenship in segregating workplaces and markets? And how is gender itself shaped by the changing nature of modern economies? We explore in what ways domains of activity—from manufacturing to the household; from the military to reproductive technologies—are gendered, and how the work that happens in them relates to social beliefs about production and reproduction, gift-giving and commodification, family and sexuality. See the 2020 syllabus here.

Management and Leadership is designed to empower students with the skills they need to make meaningful change in the world — whether they care about bike lanes, criminal justice, prenatal care, community development, urban planning, social investment, or something else. The course develops technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and political skills needed to run effective and efficient organizations embedded in diverse communities, policy arenas, sectors, and industries. We engage in a collective analysis of specific problems that leaders and managers face —first, diagnosing them and then, identifying solutions— to explore how organizations can meet and exceed their performance objectives.

In this course, students begin to think about how society works. The course examines relationships between individual identity and experience, social groups and organizations, and social structures. Students explore the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of social life and question social arrangements that seem natural or unchangeable. Topics include social inequality, politics and power, race and ethnic relations, gender, class, and everyday life. The course also introduces students to major sociological theorists and research methods.