Spring 2010 Course Schedule

Advocacy & DC Foreclosure Crisis (LAW-992-001)
Bennett, B. Williams

Meets: 04:00 PM - 05:50 PM (TH) - Room 500

Enrolled: 6 / Limit: 10

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Notices

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Description

The full title of this seminar is Multidisciplinary Approaches to Social Justice: Addressing the Residential Foreclosure Crisis in Washington, D.C. The social science of anthropology and the profession of law differ in research methods and pedagogy, but concur in regarding the persistence of social injustice as a proper focus of attention. The seminar will highlight one significant problem – the residential foreclosure crisis - as a vehicle to expose students to cross-disciplinary methods of research, forms of work product, and styles of presentation. Through reading, discussion and the completion of projects, students will learn how practitioners of each discipline perceive and address injustice. In doing so, they will gain greater understanding of their own discipline’s pre-conceptions, potential and limitations. The seminar is cross-listed as an offering in the Anthropology Department of AU's College of Arts and Sciences, and is open to ten J.D. students and ten graduate students in Anthropology.

The seminar will address the legal and institutional underpinnings of predatory lending, the securitization of mortgage products, and the historical absence of credit in poor communities. It will also engage students with members of the communities affected by foreclosure – homeowners, renters, advocates, housing counselors, elected officials, judges, and others – in defining the extent of the problem in identified neighborhoods in the District and in formulating how students can turn their disciplines’ tools to the most productive use. Students will work in teams composed of JD and graduate students to submit a portfolio of work, which may include newly created websites, mappings, reports, proposals for legislation or court reform, interviews, or film (the list is not exhaustive.) Written product may include materials for public education (e.g., a Citizen’s Guide to Foreclosure in DC;) reflections; and possibly interdisciplinary articles to submit for publication in law reviews, or in law and social science journals.

For further information, please contact Professor Susan Bennett, at sbennet@wcl.american.edu.

Textbooks and Other Materials

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First Class Readings

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Syllabus

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