Revised Proposal Interdisciplinary Minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities The purpose and scope of the interdisciplinary minor The Program in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities (PJC), which is housed in the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, was established in 2006 with the generous support of the Bridgeway Foundation and the Dean of Humanities and has worked for over two years with affiliated faculty in various departments, schools, and centers to provide students with a multi-faceted understanding of human well-being, both in the US and internationally. The program emphasizes a capabilities approach, which considers what people are able to do and be for example, live to old age and engage in economic and political activities rather than strictly what they have or don t have. The program also acknowledges the central importance of a variety of additional influences on well-being beyond income, such as gender, racial and ethnic disparities, health status, education, human rights, political freedoms, and material necessities like food and shelter. A key goal of the PJC program is to enrich students understanding of poverty and inequality, so that, regardless of their choice of occupation, they will maintain a longstanding commitment to enhancing the well-being of all people. More generally, the program aims to train Rice students to be future leaders in solving global problems in human wellbeing. The interdisciplinary program combines high-caliber undergraduate courses with internship experiences for students to work in the summer or as part of a study abroad program with agencies that help disadvantaged communities and people. The students are placed with organizations where they work directly with clients, and gain experiential knowledge that broadens their perspective on human lives and capabilities. Through these academic and experiential learning opportunities, students explore a deeper understanding of the structural factors underlying poverty and human well-being and potential policy solutions. Further, the program aims to promote dialogue among all disciplines about how to address issues of poverty alleviation and human well-being with a sophisticated understanding of the challenges and sound strategies for moving forward. Although impediments to human well-being take many forms, barriers to the capabilities of women and girls persist across societies; women and girls are therefore disproportionately represented among the poor and those unable to attain their full capabilities. In acknowledging gender inequality as a powerful influence on disparities in human well-being across the globe, the academic component of the program, including the content of core and required courses, recognizes gender as a central analytic category. Although individual courses may or may not have a primary gender focus, the three required core courses each contain a substantive component reflecting the importance of gender and sexuality in understanding poverty and human well-being. Because race and ethnicity are also strongly linked to disparities in human well-being, students are required to choose at least one elective that provides substantial coverage of issues relating to race and ethnicity. Additionally, to provide students with a global framework for understanding issues relating to poverty, justice, and capabilities, the program requires them to choose at least one elective that provides a substantial international social, economic, or cultural focus. Finally, the program brings academic experts and international leaders to campus to speak about critical issues to enable students to learn from specialists in solving global problems in human well-being. In the past two and a half years, the PJC-affiliated courses have drawn approximately 800 students. The competitively awarded PJC-funded summer internships have drawn many applicants, and students have asked for formal recognition for their coursework in this area. The PJC Steering Committee believes that
an interdisciplinary minor would be the best way to provide such committed students with a rigorous and structured course of study. An Integrated Course of Study The proposed interdisciplinary minor provides a coherent analytic framework for understanding issues relating to poverty, justice, and human capabilities, and draws from course selections from the humanities, social sciences, policy studies and engineering at Rice. All students are required to take three required core courses, three elective courses, and participate in either a PJC summer internship or in a study abroad service learning experience that has been explicitly approved for the minor. Students begin the sequence by taking HUMA280/SOCI280: Introduction to Poverty, Justice, and Capabilities, a course that introduces them to the core analytic framework of the minor, including the important theoretical questions informing the study of poverty, human well-being and capabilities. After taking this course and at least one approved elective or one of the approved gender-related courses, they are eligible to apply for the minor and to participate in a service learning internship program approved for the minor. Although they do not receive academic credit for this work, they must undertake an approved internship program as part of the minor. Because the goal of the service learning internship is to help students bridge the vast gap between their intellectual understanding of poverty and the complex realities of hardship, as part of the internship experience, students are expected to write weekly reflections, as well as a final short essay about their experience. By writing about their encounters, the student interns will begin to construct a narrative through which they can understand and contextualize their own experiences, relate those real-life experiences to the conceptual knowledge they have gained in the classroom, and share their reflections with other members of the Rice community. An experienced writer will work in consultation with students to help them turn their personal weekly reflections into a longer, final reflective paper that maintains the quality expected of higher level academic essays. Students will consult with the writer several times during their revision and editorial process. These final essays will also serve as documentation of the students' experiences to which future students and administrators of the program can refer. A second required course with a substantial gender focus related to the minor, SWGS 422: Gender and Global Economic Justice or SWGS250/POLI 250 International Political Economy of Gender, may be taken before or after the internship. One of these courses, or an approved alternative, will provide an in depth analytical framework for understanding issues relating to gender in human well-being, and must be taken before the third required course. (This course may be taken either before or after HUMA280/SOCI280.) Students have the option of taking both of these courses, with one serving as one of the required electives and the other as the gender-focused course. Finally, students may choose either POLI 338: Policy Analysis or SOCI 470: Inequality and Urban Life as the final required capstone to the minor. The capstone course provides students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge gained in other courses and the internship experience to develop a substantive paper or project on a real-world policy problem. Students must develop their capstone projects on a topic directly relevant to the themes and concerns of the PJC minor and must get advance approval for their topics from one of the PJC minor advisors, as represented in detailed prospectuses they will be required to submit for such approval. As with the above gender-related course, students have the option of taking both of these courses, with one serving as one of the required electives and the other as the capstone. However, the course taken to serve as the capstone must be completed after the other required courses and the internship.
In addition to the three required courses, students must also take three electives covering a wide range of related courses, one of which must substantially address issues relating to race and ethnicity and another of which must provide a substantial international focus on social, economic, or cultural issues relating to the minor. Finally, the PJC program will bring in several academic experts and international leaders each year to campus, and, as part of their training to become leaders in solving global problems, minor participants will be encouraged to attend the lectures and meet with the speakers at less formal occasions planned for the speakers to interact directly with students. Table 1 illustrates one way that students may fulfill the requirements for the minor, bearing in mind that the only strict timing restrictions are that HUMA280/SOCI280 must be completed before the internship, and that HUMA280/SOCI280 and SWGS 422 or SWGS250/POLI 250 as well as the internship must all be completed prior to undertaking the capstone course. There is no requirement that the sequence be initiated during the first year of study; but HUMA280/SOCI280 and one elective must be taken no later than the junior year to permit students to complete an internship the summer afterwards or prior to a study abroad service learning experience scheduled with sufficient time for completion of the capstone course afterwards. Students may receive credit for minor courses that also fulfill a requirement within their major. However, for students who are also declaring an SWGS major, no more than 9 credits can be counted towards both the SWGS major and the PJHC minor. Table 1. POVERTY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND HUMAN CAPABILITIES MINOR Possible timing for course sequence Academic Year Required Course Year 1 Year 2 HUMA 280/ SOCI 280 : Introduction to Poverty, Justice, and Capabilities SWGS 422 or SWGS 250/POLI 250 [or alternative approved course with substantive gender focus related to minor] Year 3 Electives (see Table 3) Year 4 POLI 338: Policy Analysis or SOCI 470:Inequality and Urban Life Table 2 provides more detail on the requirements for the minor, and Table 3 lists the electives approved for the minor.
Table 2. MINOR IN POVERTY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND HUMAN CAPABILITIES HUMA 280/SOCI 280: Introduction to Poverty, Social Justice, and Capabilities Instructors: Diana Strassmann, Michael Emerson SWGS 422: Gender and Global Economic Justice Instructor: Diana Strassmann Or SWGS 250/POLI 250: International Political Economy of Gender Instructor: Elora Shehabuddin, Diana Strassmann Required for Minor (No Course Credit) Internship Coordinator: Christine Medina Student Writing Advisor: Casey Fleming POLI 338: Policy Analysis Instructor: Don Ostdiek Or SOCI 470: Inequality and Urban Life Instructor: Michael Emerson The course provides an introduction to the study of poverty, justice, and capabilities. The course considers theory and policy oriented towards improving human wellbeing in the US and internationally. Readings address not just material deprivations but also gender, racial and ethnic disparities, health status, education, human rights, and political freedoms. (Note: Instructor permission required for enrollment.) Credit hours: 3 Enrollment Cap: 30 SWGS 422: Explores the persistence of gender inequality in societies around the world, and examines various measures of poverty and human well-being, with emphasis on the capabilities approach. Readings address diverse theoretical and policy topics designed to improve the standards of living and gender equality around the world. SWGS 250: This course explores how international and domestic policies and economic processes shape women's lives, and examines the implications of power relations within the home, within nations, and between nations, for women's lives in different parts of the world and at different points in history. It looks at similarities and differences in women's experiences across different contexts with such global processes as the gender division of labor, colonialism, capitalism, domestic service, and slavery. (Note: Instructor permission required for enrollment.) Credit hours: 3 Summer Service Learning Internship Enrollment Cap: X POLI 338: This class familiarizes students with the analytical tools necessary for evaluating and analyzing public policies. SOCI 470: We study urban development and the lives of urbanites. We pay particular attention to the ways in which cities generate inequality, wealth, and poverty, and how these are experienced by urbanites. We do so not only through readings and discussion, but by weekly time spent in assigned neighborhoods. We explore issues of justice and human capabilities. Credit hours: 3
Table 3. POVERTY, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND HUMAN CAPABILITIES MINOR ELECTIVE COURSES (3 REQUIRED*) *Students must choose 1 course from the Non-Western List, 1 course from the Race and Ethnicity List, and 1 course from any of the 3 lists Non-Western Courses ASIA 212 ECON 450 RELI 340 RELI 342/ ANTH 343 SWGS 250/ POLI 250 SWGS 422 Perspectives on Modern Asia World Economic and Social Development Theology in Africa New Religious Movements International Political Economy of Gender Gender and Global Economic Justice Race and Ethnicity Courses ENGL 371 Chicano/a Literature HIST 215/ HIST 315* Blacks in the Americas HIST 268* Bondage in the Modern World HIST 335* Caribbean History to 1838 HIST 427* History of the Civil Rights Movement: 1954 to the Present POLI 330 Minority Politics POLI 438* Race and Public Policy SOCI 470 Inequality and Urban Life Other Electives BIOE 260 Introduction to Global Health Issues BIOE 301 Bioengineering and World Health BIOE 362/ GLHT 362 Bioengineering for Global Health Environment ECON 461 Urban Economics ECON 521 Public Finance ENGL 342* Survey of Victorian Fiction HIST 455* History of Human Rights PHIL 307 Social and Political Philosophy POLI 329 Health Policy POLI 331* Environmental Politics and Policy POLI 338 Policy Analysis POLI 437* Education Policy SOCI 303 Poverty and Public Policy SOCI 345 Introduction to Medical Sociology SWGS 101 Introduction to Women and Gender SWGS 201 Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies SWGS 496 & SWGS 497 Applied Women s and Gender Studies (Practicum and Seminar) * offered approximately every other year (all non starred courses scheduled to be offered every year)