UCOR Section Descriptions

Course Description

How did the United States become the world's largest jailer? This course addresses many questions that arise from the phenomenon of mass incarceration (the more than tripling of the incarceration rate in America since the mid-1970s). We compare the U.S. criminal justice system to other countries in the world and explore major topics like police violence, sentencing, white collar crimes, gangs, the War on Drugs, conditions of confinement, and life after prison.

Course Description

What happens when things fall apart? What leads some societies to pull together to overcome the challenges that face it, and others to fall apart and fail? This class is focused on trying to answer that question. Looking at both empirical case studies and speculative fiction, we will seek to understand what leads societies to fail, and ask ourselves whether America is on such a path.

Course Description

Citizens and interest groups in the United States have effectuated significant societal change through political participation. Accordingly, this course covers the theoretical nature of citizenship in a democracy, exposes the impediments to democratic citizenship, and fosters an understanding of the various ways in which one can participate in the American political system. It examines examples of citizen engagement that may challenge preconceptions about the forms and forums of democratic participation in order to demonstrate to how political science takes civic engagement seriously.

Course Description

Helping others is a multifaceted process. What is the meaning of help and how is it accomplished? Who decides the nature of the problem? What are the impacts of helping on the giver and receiver? What ethical issues and value stances arise? Students will explore the dynamics of helping individuals and communities resolve problems by examining the links between personal and social problems, historical approaches and theoretical frameworks used by the helping professions.

Course Description

This urban sociology course will explore the emergence and the consequences of wastelands, or polluted spaces, in the urban environment. This academic service learning course will allow students to investigate urban wastelands throughout the urban landscape of Seattle-Pacific Northwest.

Course Description

The United States is experiencing historically unprecedented levels of income and wealth inequality. This course begins by discussing the measurement of economic inequality, providing students both a historical and global perspective on current levels of inequality in the US. The course then introduces microeconomic explanations for economic inequality, focusing on the labor market. The course examines claims that inequality is detrimental to individual and societal well-being and to the political process. Finally, the course asks what, if anything, can or should be done to address economic inequality.

Course Description

This course introduces students to the complex ways in which environmental factors and human cultures influence each other across the globe. The course adopts a holistic anthropological approach in understanding humans as biological, social, and intellectual beings engaged with the environment around them.

Course Description

This course is an anthropological introduction to three social issues that have been the focus of much research, policy and popular interest in the United States: environmental sustainability, racial identity, and gender difference and inequality. In our efforts to better understand these issues (and act upon them), anthropological research offers us a wealth of empirical data and analysis drawn from the richness of our cultural and biological variety and the sweep of human history and evolution.

Course Description

This course introduces students to the complex ways in which environmental factors and human cultures influence each other across the globe. The course adopts a holistic anthropological approach in understanding humans as biological, social, and intellectual beings engaged with the environment around them.

Course Description

This course introduces students to the complex ways in which environmental factors and human cultures influence each other across the globe. The course adopts a holistic anthropological approach in understanding humans as biological, social, and intellectual beings engaged with the environment around them.