CDS 195 - FYS: First Year Seminar

Unit(s): 4

Youth is a category that includes a broad range of personalities, experiences, peer groups, aspirations, family and community influences, and hopes and prospects for the future. Youth are everywhere at the same time they are seemingly nowhere, invisible, or silenced when it comes to many social decisions that are made that directly affect and shape their lives and futures. Considered a temporary, transitional stage between childhood and adulthood, youth are often read or misinterpreted as apathetic, caring only about themselves, concerned only for their generation or peers, or obsessed with their electronic devises, athletic shoes, or other material items. At the same time, generation after generation youth represent to many the key and strongest hope for a better future towards sustainability and social justice.

The San Francisco Bay Area has a rich tradition of involving and engaging its youth as well as youth driven social movements. Countless community organizations that serve youth have burgeoned in the last several years with the explicit charge and mission to not only work for youth but alongside with youth, building leadership and community organizing capacity. This course provides insight into the multiple cultures of and many social issues for youth in San Francisco and in the Bay Area. Our aim is to capture and generate questions, concerns and projects that connect to the most marginalized youth and their communities, education, and futures in ways that do not paint young people as total victims. We approach youth as a social constituency and achievement, as well as a formation for organizing, movement work, and praxis, situated at the crossroads of globalization, the neoliberal state and its institutions (e.g., schools, juvenile justice, social welfare), popular culture, material/cultural consumption, and social power.

In keeping with the aims of this course, potential connections between coursework and city organizations will be pursued, perhaps through guest lectures or off-campus fieldtrips. Some relevant urban organizations include: Youth Speaks (spoken word/performance), United Playaz (violence prevention), and Larkin Street Services (queer homeless youth of color).

Restriction: Class restricted to Freshman
College of Arts and Sciences