Faculty First Year Seminars 191EW1 - Representations/HousingAmerica

Owning a home has long been an integral part of the American Dream and a symbol of success. However, homeownership has recently plummeted and the prospect of housing evokes anxiety and fears of economic precarity. This Faculty First-Year Seminar will investigate and interrogate the discourse that surrounds housing, which intersects with the concepts of citizenship, race, gender, and class. We will study nonfiction and fiction alike in our attempts to unpack the cultural meanings of housing in the 21st century. Students will read about the2008 Great Recession and its lasting impacts, the history of redlining and racial discrimination through housing, and the unhoused crisis in Los Angeles. Additionally, housing will be studied as a space for resistance and protest--whether through the fights for public low-income housing, desegregation, or rent strikes. Throughout, students will be invited to reflect on and contextualize their own housing situations. Toward the end of the semester, students will explore the W.E.B. DuBois Library archives (both digital and physical) in order to better understand the housing history of Amherst.

First-Year - Fresh/Soph