Teaching

Topics in Social Issues: Homelessness.

Course Description: This seminar delves into the complex issue of homelessness, with a focus on urban areas in the United States. We spend the first part of the semester exploring scholarship on the experience, causes, and consequences of homelessness, as well as potential solutions. After establishing this foundation, we expand our study of homelessness and the stakes of understanding and addressing it by considering how homelessness interacts with other social issues—including racism, gender and sexuality, criminalization, environment, health, the political economy, and social movements. Across the course, we engage multiple disciplines, including sociology, public policy, public health, psychology, social work, and urban geography. We also explore insights outside of academia, including the perspectives of people who have experienced homelessness and those who work in various positions to help address it.

Learning Objectives

1. Establish a cooperative, inclusive, and curious learning space.

2. Understand key concepts and theories related to homelessness.

3. Practice collecting, evaluating, and effectively communicating evidence about homelessness, its causes, and its solutions.

4. Reflect on the connections between homelessness and other social issues and analyze the intersecting nature of complex social problems.

This course can be tailored to different levels and disciplinary orientations. Teaching a class on homelessness? As an early assignment, consider having students create a Profile of Local Homelessness (Assignment Instruction and Rubric Linked) for a community they care about.

View the Syllabus for this course.