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This sophomore writing seminar engages in a critical, in-depth study of the way in which people with disabilities and the disability experience are represented in an array of interdisciplinary texts, with particular emphasis on the legal tradition and interpretations. Drawing from a variety of historical as well as contemporary texts and documents, we will explore the implications of disability in culture and policy, particularly as they impact ideas of citizenship and rights, primarily in the United States, but also globally.  We will examine the history of disability law, looking closely at a number of Supreme Court cases and decisions. We will additionally allow for an intensive focus on the development of critical thought and reasoning in both oral and written communication. This course fulfills the ILR Advanced Writing requirement. Enrollment is restricted to ILR Sophomores and others with permission of the instructor.

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This course examines the experiences of workers attempting to navigate the labor standards enforcement bureaucracy. We begin by reviewing the conditions of post-industrial labor in an era of declining unionization and weak federal and state protections. Next we review theories of legal consciousness and legal mobilization, which help explain the conditions under which low-wage workers learn about their rights and come forward to demand justice. We walk through claimsmaking in an array of federal and state administrative bureaucracies, including wage and hour, health and safety, and discrimination. We also look at how the immigration enforcement regime intersects with the tenets of at-will employment to grant employers wide latitude in retaliating against undocumented workers and stifling attempts at legal mobilization. We next assess how these formal protections are filtered through various institutional gatekeepers (including legal advocates and medical experts) and how organizational compliance structures (such as human resources and mediation programs) have limited worker¿s ability to make claims on their rights. We consider how intersecting bases of inequality (such as gender, race, and national origin) are processed by administrative bureaucracies, and how lay versus legal conceptions of workplace justice often diverge. We end by considering the fallout of workplace abuse on individuals and their families. This course fulfills the ILR Advanced Writing requirement. Enrollment is restricted to ILR Sophomores and others with permission of the instructor.