| Course Title: Dislocation: Class and Politics in the U.S. |
| Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026 |
| Term: Spring Semester 2026 |
| Description: Dislocation from work and home has been a common experience of the working class in the United States since World War II. Whether caused by factors such as the gentrification of urban neighborhoods and rural towns, deindustrialization, urban renewal, automation, or the precarity of low-wage employment, the working class experience of dislocation continues today. This course will examine the decision making behind the policies and practices that have dislocated many working class Americans, as well as how these people have adjusted, accommodated, resisted, and sometimes fought dislocation from their jobs and homes. In this course, class is viewed as a social position shaped by power relations. While race and gender will be taken into account, our main focus will be understanding and explaining the common experience of the working class majority in the U.S. |
| Distribution(s): III - Social Sciences , CBL - Community-Based Learning , WI - Writing-Intensive |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Preston Smith II | 413-538-2151 | psmith@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026 | Lecture | Monday and Wednesday | 01:45PM - 03:00PM | SHTK - Shattuck Hall | 118 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| Prereq: POLIT-104 or POLIT-252, or 8 credits in Politics. | Take previously | Required |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| This is a community-based learning class. Students will be interviewing working people about their cost of living and how they manage to make ends meet. |
| Course Tags | ||
| POLIT-AMER | POLIT-AMER: Politics - American subfield | This course has been approved to count towards the American Politics subfield of the Politics major (100-200-level courses only) and minor (all courses). |
| EOS0003 | EOS-3: Structures of Inequality | This course has been approved to count towards the EOS minor in the Structures of Inequality subject area |
| NXLAR0001 | NXLAR: Nexus in Law, Public Policy, and Human Rights | This course is approved for the Law, Public Policy, and Human Rights Nexus track. |
| CRPE0006 | CRPE-PE: People, Power, Place Courses | This course has been approved to count towards the CRPE People, Power, Place requirement. |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 13 | Available: 5 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| To be determined. |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |