HSOC3389 - Care: A Research Seminar

This course introduces students to a range of qualitative and historical research practices and modalities through individual and group investigation of a concept – “care” – that has been central to a wide range of disciplines and practices. Starting with feminist debates around the uses, meaning, and value of care, the course asks students what it means to investigate something that is both intangible and possesses multiple meanings. What does it meant to talk about “care work” or “health care”? How do we identify what people “care about”? How is care “operationalized” in different institutional, profit-making, or knowledge-producing settings? The course is structured around deep reading across historical and theoretical literature, and research activities including observation, mapping, archival research, interview techniques, and connecting a research question to relevant literatures. The focus will be on introducing students to aspects of the research process and building a research portfolio oriented around a shared theme.