Course Syllabus

 

▼SYLLABUS

POVERTY LAW

Seattle University School of Law

Prof. Dean Spade

spaded@seattleu.edu

Administrative Assistant: Stephanie Tortorelli

Office Hours: Wednesdays 4-5pm and by appointment (sign up for the Weds slots on Canvas Calendar)

 

SYLLABUS

Description

This course aims to create a critical dialogue about the role of law in structuring wealth inequality and its potential role in remedying such inequality. The interdisciplinary course materials that we will be using throughout the semester have been selected to assist students in engaging in critical analysis about the roles of settler colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and ableism in structuring law and poverty, as well as law’s role in structuring those systems of meaning, control and distribution. The course will explore both specific questions and histories concerning public benefits, disaster relief, housing, imprisonment, immigration and other legal issues facing low-income populations as well as broad questions about how we might conceptualize governance and the role of law reform in social movements aimed at redistributing wealth and life chances.

 

Requirements

The readings for this semester will be available on Canvas either as pdfs or as web links and in the required books. (Please note that margin notes that may appear in some pdfs are not necessarily mine.) Students are expected to read all the assigned material for the week in advance of Monday’s class session, attend every class, and participate actively in discussion.

  • 35% of your grade will be based upon class participation which includes the
    • participation in live class discussion
    • attendance (Attendance is mandatory in this class. More than two unexcused absences will result in a grade reduction.)
    • weekly Canvas assignments:
      • Each week except Week 14, you are required to turn in a Reading Analysis on Canvas by 11am on Tuesday (see Course Overview pages for each week for instructions). Note, on the first week of class only this assignment is due on Monday at 9am.
      • Each week except Week 14, you are required to put an additional short post in Canvas by 9am Thursday (see Course Overview pages for each week for instructions).
    • You will be evaluated on your mastery of the materials, preparedness, your demonstration of critical analysis, and your active participation.
  • 30% of your grade will be based on the group project described here.
  • 35% of your grade will come from your final exam, which will be a character-limited take home exam.

Zoom Camera Policy: To facilitate a productive “classroom” discussion, you should not disable video without a compelling reason to do so. Just as you would be expected to show your face in class if we were not in a pandemic, I ask that you show your face in our Zoom classroom so that we can see each other's expressions and attention, and to avoid the temptation of distractions. Not everyone has a completely private space to attend class from home. That is okay, we would rather see you and also have the occasional disruption of your space by a pet, child, or roommate than not see you at all. If you would prefer that your home space is not seen by our class, considering using a background Links to an external site..

Required Readings

            The required books for this class are The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Ed. Incite!), Regulating the Poor Links to an external site. by Piven and Cloward, Prison By Any Other Name by Maya Schwenar and Vikki Law, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein. All other readings will be posted to Canvas.

Reading Questions

            When engaging the readings, in addition to your other inquiries it will assist you in preparing for class discussion if you consider the following questions:

  • How does the writer understand power, social change and the economy?
  • How does the writer define or explain poverty?
  • How does the writer understand the relationships between race, disability, indigeneity, gender, and poverty? Is the writer examining the topic of the writing using some or all of these lenses? Are some of these lenses missing, and how would the argument be different if they were engaged?
  • What does the writer think should be done about the concerns s/he is identifying, both immediately and more broadly? What should the world look like according to this writer?
  • Who is the writer speaking to? Who is s/he disagreeing with or responding to?

Recommended films (many available in the SU library or free online):

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

Life and Debt

¡Palante, Siempre Palante!

Zapatista!

Fight in the Fields

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation

Bread and Roses

Maxed Out

The End of Poverty?

I.O.U.S.A

Capitalism: A Love Story

The Best Government Money Can Buy

Trouble the Water

When the Levees Broke

Land of Opportunity

Visions of Abolition

South of the Border (Oliver Stone)

Schedule

Week 1, Aug 24, 26

Week 2, Aug 31, Sept 2

Week 3, Sept 9

Week 4, Sept 14, 16

Week 5, Sept 21, 23

  • Prison By Any Other Name, Chapters 1, 2 and 3.

Week 6, Sept 28, 30

  • Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, Chapters 1, 8, 10.
  • Optional:
    • Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254 (1970)
    • Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969)

Week 7, Oct 5, 7

  • Regulating the Poor, Chapter 11, 12.
  • Kenneth J. Neubeck and Noel A. Cazenave, Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America’s Poor, Chapter 2, “Conceptualizing Welfare Racism”
  • Optional:
    • Wyman v. James, 400 U.S. 309 (1971) (use pdf on TWEN)
    • Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471 (1970) (use pdf on TWEN)

Week 8, Oct 12, 14

Week 9, Oct 19, 21

  • The Revolution Will Not Be Funded (ed. INCITE!):
    • Chapter 1: The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, by Dylan Rodríguez
    • Chapter 2: In The Shadow of the Shadow State, by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
    • Chapter 4: Democratizing American Philanthropy, by Christine E. Ahn

Week 10, Oct 26, 28

Week 11, Nov 2, 4

Week 12, Nov 9, 11

  • No New Readings for this week.

Week 13, Nov 16, 18

Week 14, Nov 23, 25

Week 15, Nov 30, Dec 2 

No new readings for this week.