What Are Families For?

What Are Families For? will explore the past and future of close relationships, family life, child rearing and growing up in America. We will study the changing socioeconomic and political functions of families in society, as well as internal transformations in the structure, values and dynamics of family life.

Fall quarter we will focus on the history of families in America, including family formation, marriage, patterns of child rearing, and changing routes to adulthood. We will also look at the evolution of values about love and sexuality. Our goal is to understand the social origins as well as the social consequences of changes in family patterns, gender roles and child-rearing practices. We will pay special attention to racial and class variations in the experience of growing up and forming families.

During winter quarter we will explore contemporary trends in family life, including the prolongation of the transition to adulthood, changing male-female relations, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, child-rearing and new sexual norms. Again, we will examine how these vary by ethnicity, race, and social class.

Reading assignments will be time-consuming and often difficult, as we strive to understand the historical trends and contemporary socioeconomic and cultural forces affecting the evolution of family life and close relationships. There will be a heavy emphasis on social science analysis, thesis-driven expository writing, and close textual work with the books. The faculty will hold the class to high standards for critical, coherent, and technically-accurate writing. In addition to book seminars, daily reading, and weekly writing assignments, students should count on doing 6-7 hours a week of service learning in the public schools or in community after-school programs, taking field notes on their observations and experiences.

The program will lay the groundwork for further studies in public policy, family law, education, gender studies, social work, American history, and sociology