School of Social Work: General Information
2008-2009 Academic Year
695
COURSE OFFERINGS FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
SOWK 200 Introduction to Social Policy & Practice (3 credits)
This course examines the processes that influence the development of social
policy and social services. Included are legislative and political processes,
models of policy analysis, service delivery and policy implementation. Effects of
these on people are considered from global, political, economic and social policy
perspectives.
This course is developed around the general proposition that social workers utilize
knowledge and skills to carry out roles and functions critical for practice. Such
knowledge and skills include the application of social policy analysis, the
legislative process, the role and impact of politics and political choice on the
quality of life of people, and the effect of economic-social policy decision and
judicial actions on social services. In addition, the course examines the variability
of the common and uncommon attributes of service delivery systems.
SOWK 211 Family-Violence: Intervention - Making a Difference (3 credits)
This course explores current thinking about domestic violence and its impact on
adult participants, children and families. Emphasis is placed on understanding
theories about what causes domestic violence and effective intervention strategies
for eliminating violence in families. Topics include socio-cultural, intrapersonal,
and interpersonal explanations for domestic violence, the co-occurrence of
domestic violence and child abuse, and strategies for effective intervention with
batterers, victims, and children.
SOWK 223 Guns and Gangs: At Risk Youth in the Inner City (3 credits)
Unlike adult crimes, most juvenile delinquency is committed in groups. The aim
of this course is to examine national and local gang dynamics within the context
of weapon availability, drug markets, turf issues, and the economy. The rapidly
changing social variables of race, social class, migration, and immigration are
explored relative to gang membership, chronic gang problems, and solutions.
SOWK 230 Communication with and Social Welfare of Tibetan Refugees
(Optional 4 week Field Study in India) (3 credits)
This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of communication skills
with Tibetan refugees living in India and the conditions under which they live.
Their life and culture will be addressed with special attention to the implications
for their social and human welfare. This course will include the fundamentals of
spoken and classical Tibetan. Students will have the option of participating in a
four week trip to north India to work with the Tibetan refugee population in exile
in a project co-sponsored by The School of Social Work titled "Compassion in
Action."
SOWK 232 Tibet: Social Welfare, Social Movement and Social Change (3
credits)
This course examines the Tibetan refugee life and the struggle to preserve their
culture and way of life. We will also analyze the transformation of Tibet in the
Western imagination and appropriation of Tibetan culture and their consequences