SW 303 - Diversity & Oppression

Credits: 4

The primary purpose of this course is for students to be able to grapple with and identify meaningful, working definitions of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression and to situate these definitions – and people’s lived experiences of oppression, prejudice, and discrimination within historical and contemporary societal contexts in social work practice, research, policy, theory, and activism. Students will examine and develop models of culturally competent, ethical social work practice by integrating an understanding of the dynamics of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression with a professional use of self and a commitment to social justice. Students will explore particular manifestations of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression such as racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism, as well as the ways in which these various forms of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression overlap and intersect. Students will learn how to maximize empowerment of clients and communities and to reduce clients’ and communities’ experiences of oppression and institutional violence. The course is designed to create explicit linkages between practice and policy. Prerequisites: SW 304 Corequisites: SW 305.