Undergraduate Academics
Public Policy
Sarah Lawrence College’s public policy program addresses the most pressing public-policy issues of our time, including promoting peace, protecting the environment, providing education and health services, and safeguarding human and workers’ rights. Supported by the College’s Office of Community Partnerships, students partner with unions, community organizations, and legal groups in the New York City area as a required element of their course work, gaining direct experience that they can relate to theoretical issues.
Students also participate in international fieldwork, such as a labor research exchange in Cuba, a health care worker conference in the Dominican Republic, a community-organizing project to help establish a medical clinic for residents of the impoverished community of Lebrón in the Dominican Republic, and a study trip to the US/Mexico border area of El Paso/Juarez. This combination of study and direct experience exposes students to various approaches to problems and builds an enduring commitment to activism in many forms.
Public Policy 2026-2027 Courses
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Open, Seminar—Fall | 5 credits
PUBP 3355
This course will examine abolitionism, both as a conceptual discourse and as a set of people’s movement practices. The first unit of the course focuses on the historical movement of abolitionism, beginning with the proliferation of the movement around the Revolutionary Atlantic world of the 18th century. Considering the uprisings and revolts throughout the colonial world of this time will lead us into considering individuals like Olaudah Equiano and Robert Wedderburn, who brought the abolitionist cause back into the imperial capital after traveling the rebellious seas. From there, we will follow the currents of the revolutionary Atlantic to focus on the Haitian Revolution, both in terms of the decades leading up to the revolution and in relation to the cascading inspiration that abolitionists throughout the Americas drew from this event. From there we can appreciate the development of a more concerted abolitionist movement within the United States, with a particular interest in the Underground Railroad direct action network which helped tens of thousands of slaves escape into the freer currents of the revolutionary Atlantic world. Finally, we will consider the escalation of United States abolitionism, the Civil War, and the elements of radical democracy that took place during the early Reconstruction. We will then pivot a century later to consider the emergence of prison abolitionism in the 1970s, concentrating on the series of protests and prison uprisings that launched the movement, as well as the discourse that emerged out of that resistance. From there, we will track the continued evolution of the ideas and texts of prison abolitionism from the 1970s through the 2010s, with a particular focus on the works of Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore. In the 2013-2020 period, we will consider the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and how it relates to prison abolitionist texts. This movement also led to a broader focus on police abolition, which is reflected in the work of authors within the movement, including Mariame Kaba and Alex Vitale. Finally, we will consider the ICE abolition movement in both the 2017-2020 and 2025-2026 periods and how this movement relates to the history of abolitionist ideas and practices before it. Collectively, we will seek to answer the question of why the concepts and practices of historical abolitionism have been seen as increasingly relevant to the neoliberal mass incarceration era. Students should expect open seminar discussions, regular discussion posts, group presentation projects, and a major research-oriented conference project.
Faculty
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Open, Seminar—Spring | 5 credits
PUBP 3212
This seminar course will offer a unique perspective on the history of the United States, focusing on the social movements that have significantly influenced this nation and its policies. We will delve into the formation of these movements, their tactics, and their lasting effects, making the course directly relevant to the social issues of today. We will begin by focusing on a people’s history of abolitionism, beginning with the revolutionary Atlantic uprisings of the 18th century that led up to the revolutionary abolition of slavery throughout much of the Americas. This will lead into course work on the civil disobedience tradition in the United States, with particular focus on the Underground Railroad, the guerrilla warfare that led up to the Civil War, and the general strike of the Black southern proletariat. From there, we will consider how the blossoming of the women’s movement and the workers’ movement in the late 19th century led to the peak of revolutionary radicalism in the United States in the early 20th century, ultimately achieving access to birth control and the New Deal. We will then examine the numerous people’s movements against the mid-20th century social order throughout the 1960s-1970s, including the Civil Rights movement, Black Power, the LGBTQ movement, the antiwar movement, and second-wave feminism. With these foundations in place, we can then appreciate the ongoing movements of the 21st century, beginning with a focus on the anti-globalization movement at the turn of the century. In our present era, we will follow these currents through movements such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, the numerous uprisings of the 2018-2020 period, and contemporary movements against fascism. As a seminar-based course, academic expectations will include participation in daily class discussions, biweekly discussion posts, and in-class presentations. For conference work, students will develop their own original research project on a particular movement in US history. Projects typically culminate in a final essay and a mini-presentation.
Faculty