Overview
WEEK 7 READINGS: Caring Work
- Stacey, The Caring Self: The Work Experiences of Home Care Aides(selection)
- Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. Forced to care: Coercion and caregiving in America. Harvard University Press, 2010. Ch.6 & Ch.7
(both are attached)
Assignment part 1:
Write a 400–500-word commentary on ONE of this week's readings:
Guidelines:
- The goal of the long commentary is to allow you to distill the main arguments of the texts and engage them analytically. Rather than simply summarize the reading or raise a lot of questions, you should develop your own analytical points. Think about the contributions as well as the limitations of the texts you’re responding to—that is, spend as much time engaging in a productive way with the reading as critiquing it. Some possible questions to ask yourself as you read that you might respond to in the commentary: What are the pros and cons of the theoretical and methodological choices or assumptions the author has made? What seems innovative or surprising about the author’s analysis? How does this author’s work relate to other texts we have read, either in the week you’re writing about or across the semester?
- You may also discuss current events that seem thematically connected to the readings
Assignment part 2:
Write a short commentary on THE OTHER READING FROM THIS WEEK (whichever text you did not choose for part 1). This reading response should raise questions for discussion with a word count around 100 words. Writing style should be a casual response and reaction to the readings and include a few questions.