Critical Social Inquiry 0252 - Creating Families

This course investigates the roles of law, culture and technology in creating and re-defining families. It focuses on the ways in which systems of reproduction reinforce and/or challenge inequalities of class, race and gender. We examine the issues of entitlement to parenthood, LBGTQ families, domestic and international adoption, surrogacy, birthing and parenting for people in prison, and the uses, consequences and ethics of new reproductive technologies. The questions addressed included: How does a person's status affect their relation to reproductive alternatives? What is the relationship between state reproductive policies and actual practices, legal, contested, and clandestine, which develop around these policies? How are notions of family and parenting enacted and transformed in an arena that is transnational, interracial, intercultural, and cross-class? Students are required to write three reflection papers, give an oral presentation, and write a final analytic paper based on independent research.

Power, Community and Social Justice Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.