School of Social Policy and Practice (SSPP)
SSPP 6000 Advocacy in Emergent Technology, Digital Media and Society
This course is designed to build a critical foundation for understanding the interplay of digital technologies and society and the important role of advocates in this space. Providing an overview of the history, students will investigate and critique contemporary emergent technologies in a social context, and explore their use in advocacy efforts. The course uses interactive lecture, discussion, readings, and guest speakers from technologists in the field.
Fall
Also Offered As: COMM 6000
Mutually Exclusive: COMM 4000
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6010 Comparative Urban and Distributive Politics
As of 2007, more than half of the world's population resides in cities. Cities and metropolitan regions are much more unequal than the countries that host them. For example, income inequality in the New York Metropolitan Area parallels that of Rwanda at around 15 Gini points higher than the U.S. as a whole. This course provides an introduction to the observable patterns and challenges confronting cities and metropolitan areas and the policy remedies and options available to government, NGOs, and the private sector. First, the course will explore the political, sociocultural, and economic explanations for the origins and evolution of urban environments. We will trace the historical development of local government institutions, analyze how urban coalitions form, and investigate the distribution of power in the city. In the second half of the course, we will examine urban welfare policies and programs in the areas of growth, housing, the distribution of public goods/services (e.g., education, public security, sanitation), identity politics and culture wars, and poverty. The course begins with a focus on U.S. cities, yet the second half of the course will explore, instead, city cases in the Global South. The topics covered in this course include: race, identity and distributive politics in cities, housing policy and its role on inequality, race- and class-based urban segregation, urban machines and clientelistic politics, poverty and urban slums, informal housing, public goods and distributive justice, urban crime and law and order, land rights and other ``rights to the city'' (RTC), climate change adaptation in cities, environmental risk and precarious settlements, gentrification and evictions, among other topics.
Fall
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6020 Applied Data Ethics, Law, and the Social Good
This course explores the applied use of civic data, specifically “using data for the social good.” Data can help us understand needs, improve services, shift policies, and build stronger, healthier, and more just communities. However, use of data can also reinforce legacies of racist policies and produce inequitable resource allocation, access, and outcomes. These tensions are the crux of this course. We will interrogate assumptions and ask difficult questions of ourselves as we hold this duality—that data can be used for good and for harm. It is up to us as practitioners to weigh the risks and benefits to ensure that civic data use is legal, ethical, and a good idea.
Fall
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6030 Journey to Joy: Designing a Happier Life for Social Work, Social Policy and Non-Profit Leadership Pr
What does joy really mean? Could joy be an intervention for complex trauma, pain, grief, and loss? How does joy show up in policy making and leadership? This innovative new course combines cutting-edge research, practical techniques, and real-world examples to help you understand the power of joy and develop community-informed, anti-racist strategies for promoting it. From exploring the latest in clinical intervention, popular ideas around manifestation, self-care, and #Blackjoy, to examining the role of technology and cultural differences, you will gain a culturally humble and comprehensive understanding of what it takes to design a happier life. This course includes a blend of immersive, hands-on activities, short lectures, and engaging reflexive discussions that will leave you feeling inspired and empowered. Whether you are social work, non-profit leader or social policy student, or someone who wants to increase their own experiences of joy and happiness, this course is a perfect way to jump start your journey to joy.
Fall
Also Offered As: COMM 6030
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6040 Social Justice Scholars Program Seminar
The intent of the seminar is to aid scholars in developing skills, knowledge, and concepts relevant to becoming social justice leaders in their field. To this end, the seminar will: •Connect Scholars to relevant faculty, alumni and community and institutional leaders •Promote intellectual engagement among all scholars and faculty from across the school, as well as community-based representatives •Promote the development of critical consciousness and awareness of the issues of social justice in the scholar’s chosen fields •Develop possible action strategies using a critical framework
Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms
Prerequisite: Course is restricted to SP2 SJS Program participants
0 Course Units
SSPP 6060 Mass Incarceration and Abolitionist Theory
The United States incarcerates people at a higher rate than any other country. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, people with disabilities, and queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately exposed to the carceral continuum of policing, surveillance, arrest, and incarceration. US history includes numerous examples of abolitionist resistance to the carceral state, from the slave uprisings to the Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971, to the Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality movements. This course draws from multiple disciplines including history, sociology, and law to explore and understand the phenomenon of mass incarceration, the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC), and abolitionist thought and movements in the United States. In this course we will critically reflect on the political, economic, and social antecedents of mass incarceration, as well as the pervasiveness of the Prison Industrial Complex in the United States. We will also assess alternatives to punishment and incarceration as means of pursuing justice.
Spring
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6070 Disrupting Gender-Based Violence: Practice and Policy Solutions
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive global problem, with recent studies suggesting that rates of GBV are increasing. GBV represents a broad constellation of interpersonal harms that are typically understood as rooted in patriarchal forces, although they can happen to individuals of all genders. This class will focus on five types of GBV: sexual violence, intimate partner violence, violence against children, economic violence, and state violence. We will read academic, personal, organizational, and governmental articles, as well as engage with mixed media like videos. After orienteering ourselves with theory, each student will pick a population on which to focus during the semester about which they will develop a portfolio of knowledge. Population choices may be based on age, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, geography, or any other identity. Students are encouraged to think domestically or globally depending on their own interests. This course will take an active-learning approach, every other class will be individual and small group work where students delve deeper into how violence manifests in their population and work with a group to design cross-cutting solutions. The course is open to NPL, MSSP, and MSW students; students across disciplines will work together to find clinical, organizational, and political solutions to GBV.
Spring
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6080 Climate Change and Economic Inequality
Climate change has emerged as a defining societal challenge. Economics and data can be powerful tools for analyzing climate change: for understanding how it is caused, who is hurt by it, and how policy solutions may be designed to mitigate it. Exploring the market and non-market forces that drive economic opportunity and inequality, and how these forces could interact with climate change may be important for policymakers and practitioners given the breadth of climate impacts and the wide-ranging implications of energy policy. This course provides an introduction to applied economic scholarship on climate change, with an emphasis on studies and perspectives that use “big” data and empirical analyses that permit valid causal inference, which is the science of disentangling cause and effect using real-world data. We will explore the market failures that give rise to climate change; emerging evidence on its effects on human health, economic productivity, crime, and well-being broadly construed; and the forces that may influence whether and how societies will adapt to a changing climate.
Spring
1 Course Unit
SSPP 6230 Leading Social Change
So You Want to Change the World? Taught by Ben Jealous—civil rights leader, tech investor, and 2018 candidate for Governor of Maryland—and Dr. Ariel Schwartz, Managing Director of Penn’s Center for Social Impact Strategy, this class invites students to pick their One Big Thing and explore multiple paths for making real social change. The semester will be split into four sections. In the introductory section, students will find ways to translate personal passion for social change into a clearly articulated goal and explore what it means to lead with heart. The next three sections will dive into different ways to solve big problems in our communities, our country, and the world: social impact tech start-ups, running for office, and leading an issue campaign. Occasional guest lectures by master practitioners will help us concretize what we are learning. Students will cultivate their own vision and approach to leading social change. Student involvement will include co-leading at least one discussion section and writing four short essays—one articulating your “One Big Thing” (impact goal) and three reflections on the approaches we explore. The final assignment will be an oral presentation for solving the challenge you have identified. The course will feature lively discussion and interactive ways of grappling with solving tough social problems. This class will be challenging, fun, and likely very different from your other courses. Course Concentrations Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice. Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate. Professional Responsibility and Ethics Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate. Public Interest Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of public interest law; Perform legal analysis in the context of public interest law; Communicate effectively on topics related to public interest law; Demonstrate an understanding of how public interest law is connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines. Equity and Inclusion Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of equity and inclusion; Perform legal analysis in the context of topics related to equity and inclusion; Communicate effectively on the legal aspects of equity and inclusion; Demonstrate an understanding of how equity and inclusion are connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines. Textbooks "Engines of Liberty" by David Cole Publisher: Basic BOoks Required "Innovation and Scaling for Impact" by Christian Seelos and Johanna Mair Publisher: Stanford University Press Required "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Allinsky Publisher: unknown Required "The Lean Start-up" by Eric Ries Publisher: Currency Required "You’re More Powerful than you Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen" by Eric Liu Publisher: Public Affairs ISBN: 9781610397087
Spring
Mutually Exclusive: LAW 6230
1 Course Unit
SSPP 7000 Independent Research Workshop
Students in this course will carry out their own social science research project relating to social work, social policy, nonprofit leadership, or other social justice topics. Students must complete an introductory research course prior to enrolling—SWRK6150, MSSP6290, NPL5830, NPL7200 or the equivalent. Students must also have an approved research proposal and IRB approval prior to the start of the course. All students will be expected to prepare a publishable research paper by the end of the semester.
Fall
1 Course Unit
SSPP 7001 Schools as Sites of Suffering: Antiblackness and Social Policy
This course will explore the context of contemporary schooling in the U.S. with special attention to how African American youth, teachers, and leaders experience educational inequality. Through this course, students will have the opportunity to examine education policies that (re)produce, sustain and exacerbate a particular form of harm for Black people. Further students will critically interrogate the relationship between education policies, housing policies, and criminal justice and how they shape the enduring conditions of Black life. This course foregrounds settler colonialism and antiblackness as logics that structure the social world generally, and the educational enterprise, specifically. As an interdisciplinary theory course, our readings will draw from neighboring fields such as Black studies, political science, and Black geographies, students will explore concepts like “social death,” “afterlife of slavery,” and “Black place making” to understand how anti-black racism reinforces subjugation and dehumanization across the educational enterprise. Students will also consider how Black people cultivate joy against a backdrop of suffering and whether policy interventions and institutional change might be a site of possibility to reduce harm. To that end, we explore ideas of abolition and its potential to re-imagine a new world. Students enrolled in this seminar will have the opportunity to engage with scholarly texts, podcasts, and films.
Spring
1 Course Unit