Depending on the amount of interest, this course may be offered May 17-22, 2009 (leaving early Sunday morning from the AmTrak Station in St. Paul and returning Friday night around 10.30 p.m. ). We'll be staying in the Harris Family Hostel in Chicago. Cost for transportation,housing, and text will be $400 (billed at the same time as tuition for the course), and of course, you also need to pay tuition for this two-credit summer school class (Soc 3841)and cover food and miscellaneous expenses during the trip. .
You reserve a spot by registering for Sociology 3841 in the May term, and you need to get a permission number from me to complete your registration.
COURSE SIZE IS LIMITED TO 20 STUDENTS.
Sociology 3841: Urban Justice Tour
2 credits. This course counts as one of the required electives in either a sociology or criminology major at UMD.
Instructor: Bruce Mork Office Phone: 726-6369
Office: 104c Cina. E-mail: bmork@d.umn.edu
Text: 3 options: 1.Mary Patillo, Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Patillo is a black sociologist who moves into the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago (one of the areas we will visit during our first full day in Chicago) and this is the story of a housing project that once stood not far from where she lives, in which the residents were promised that once it had been demolished, they would have first priority for the replacement housing. But it didn't happen, and the story of their betrayal is in this book. 2. Sudhir Venkatesh. Off the Books: the Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Venkatesh was writing a book about the Robert Taylor Homes, a now demolished housing project on the Southside of Chicago, and in the process, got very involved in a ten-square block community he calls Marquis Park, in which gang members, homeless people, street hustlers, preachers, and black entrepreneurs, interact regularly in their effort to make a living "off the books." Again, we will be "in the neighborhood" during our field trip, though at this point I have not been able to identify the actual blocks in question. Both books are challenging, and it will bebest if you can make a start on the whichever you choose in advance of our field trip (or at least during the train ride to Chicago). 3. Steve Bogira, Courtroom 302. Bogira, who works for the Chicago Reporter, spends a year observing in one courtroom in one of the busiest criminal court buildings in the United States (which we will visit on the second full of our trip). He interviews judges, prosecutors, police, etc. and gives us, as the subtitle puts it, "a year behind the scenes in an American criminal courthouse." He discovers a system which is biased not in the direction of "presumed innocent" (the way it's supposed to be) but often in the other direction, and in which racial discrimination is also a factor.
Course Description: This is a guided tour of Chicago neighborhoods, with an emphasis on issues of inequality, justice, and change. It will also include observation in one of the largest criminal courts in the country and possibly a tour of the Cook County Jail.
Course Requirements: Participate in two orientation sessions in advance ( not yet scheduled). . Participate in all course-related activities during the week in Chicago. In small groups, visit at least two neighborhoods from a list that will be provided; maintain a journal of Chicago observations, feelings, thoughts; submit 6-8 page paper by June 5, 2009.
Logistics: AmTrak, leaving St. Paul around 7.45 a.m (Be there by 6.45). on Sunday, May 17, and returning around 10.30 p.m. on Friday, May 22. . We'll be staying at the J. Ira & Nicki Harris Family Hostel, in the heart of the downtown, not far from museums, theatres, stores, and restaurants. We will be assigned to rooms with 8-12 people, sleeping on what I think are comfortable bunk beds. Showers may be in the room or down the hall(bring slippers); there are lockers in each room, so bring a lock. If someone needs to leave a message for you, the number is: 312-360-0300. Pack light and if necessary, wash some clothes while you are there.
Luggage: Keep it easy to carrry. We'll be walking 8-10 blocks to and from the Train Station at each end of our trip and you don't want to be carrying two heavy suitcases. I'd recommend a backpack or a suitcase that has rollerblade wheels (borrow one if you have the older kind of luggage).
Registration: Registration is for Sociology 3841: Urban Justice Tour (2 credits) and you need to register as part of summer registration through Continuing Education.
Safety: For safety's sake in Chicago, do not go anywhere alone. I also recommend carrying a small billfold rather than a purse, and minimizing the amount of valuable and hard-to-replace items you carry in your billfold. We did have an attempted mugging of one of our students who was going to a restaurant alone in 1994, but I believe the risks to people in groups are minimal. .
Costs: Besides tuition, which will be billed with your other summer tuition, cost for travel plus hostel and books will be $400.. That fee also covers the instructor's expenses for travel, hostel, and food. In addition, you will need to pay for your own food and entertainment while you are in Chicago. Expenses as well as tuition will be billed as part of UMD's tuition billing for the sumer term.
Clothing: Bring a rain jack as well as a warm fleece that can go inside the rain jacket if we have a really cold day. Also bring good walking shoes (not flip/flops). Chicago is not called the windy city for nothing, and we will sometimes be walking a long ways (6 miles or more the first full day)as we explore a neighborhood, or travel from an el station to our destination. Plan to dress conservatively during our field trips, especially to the courts--no baseball caps, no raggedy clothes, etc.
Identification: You need to have drivers license or other state i.d. with photo the day we visit thecourts; also, that day, do not bring cameras, cell phones, radios, or pocket knives.
Orientation and discussion sessions. . Round-robin discussion sessions will be held at the hostel the first three days (yet to be scheduled) and you do need to attend.
Comedy Club Monday night. Monday night we will together attend Chicago's famous Second City comedy club, in the interest of having a good time together and bonding as a group. This is their "best of" performance and dependably funny. I will let you know when to meet in the lobby at the hostel, and we'll take the subway/elevated train to the theater.
Paper guidelines. All of your observations, thoughts, and feelings in Chicago (not just those on the official field trips) are appropriate for inclusion in your journal and paper. You may want to do a rough draft of your paper on the train coming back from Chicago, and once we're back, you may email papers to me (put the paper in the body of the email, as well as attaching it, in case my word processing software (if you use Word, save as the 1997-2003 version)isn't compatible with your word processing program. .
Probable visit sites: Chicago South Side, Little Village, Chinatown, Cook County Jail (maybe), Cook County Criminal Courts, Hyde Park and the University of Chicago, and other neighborhoods that you will visit in small groups. .
Apart from the field trips and neighborhood visits, you are on your own, but do plan your other activities in groups. Among the activities people have enjoyed on past trips are the following: the Chicago Art Instititute, Fields Natural History Museum, the Aquarium and Oceanarium, various theatres, the Hard Rock Cafe, Second City Comedy Club, jazz clubs (need to be 21, unfortunately), the Sears tower, the shopping on upper Michigan street. Every year people try to get tickets for Oprah, but so far with no success. Some of us have also attended sports events and theatre performances. In 2009, the Twins and White Sox will be playing Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Thursday afternoons.
South Side Housing Projects: Community Garden. Those are the Robert Taylor homes in the background and they may all be demolished by the time of our 2007 visit. But we will explore this neighborhood, which is beginning to gentrify.