20-21 EC3362: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender: the Role for Public Policy
AUTUMN 2020
Instructor: Jefferson Frank
Office: Horton 216
Phone: contact by e-mail
E-mail: j.frank@rhul.ac.uk
Office hours: by e-mail appointment
My PURE page is the best place to learn about me:
COVID19
Leading professors throughout the world have discovered over the last six months that on-line interactions can build the link between tutor and students. Small groups of up to 9, and Oxbridge tutorials of 2 – 4, work well on-line. We will therefore try to have small group meetings, and will add more if we have to go on-line for a period of time. I encourage you to make individual contact with me as soon as you can, even before term starts, so that we can start our discussions together.
Where you need to contribute is by ensuring that you have high-speed internet and high quality IT equipment for whenever we are interacting on-line. It is also vital that you use your camera and show your face when on-line. It is my preference not to use a virtual background, since I think it is good that we normalise our interactions.
PERSPECTIVE
The topics and materials of this course are necessarily ones where thinking and viewpoints are evolving over time. We will be having external speakers who can broaden our own perspectives. In any difficult subject, people need to speak freely but respectfully, but also be ready to apologise when (not if) mistakes are made in tone or content.
Economics is a toolbox of models and techniques that are powerful and can be applied to any policy issue. In this course, you will be asked to think about (and write three essays for assessment on) subtle policy issues. This is doing real life economics, where you need to analyse hard problems and provide policy solutions in a complicated political and social environment. This is one of the reasons why taking this course should be helpful in your job and additional education plans. Further, prospective employers and teachers of postgraduate courses want to see that you have interests and open minds in addressing complex and controversial policy issues. They need people who are prepared for the future, where textbook solutions are no longer adequate.
ASSESSMENT AND COURSEWORK
As part of the ongoing work for the course, you will participate in on-line forums. This is to develop your thinking. The formal assessment for the course will be 3 essays, with the details to be added later.
The course is intended to be accessible to students other than in Economics. Please discuss with me if you wish further information on the suitability of the course for you.
COURSE DELIVERY
As with other departmental courses, the delivery will be tripartite, including on-line and in-person meetings (subject to health & safety). Details will be added later.
READING
You are expected to read the main books for the course, as well as the other books as follows:
Lee Badgett, The Economics Case for LGBT Equality: Why fair and equal treatment benefits us all, Beacon Press 2020.
Susan Mezey, Beyond Marriage: Continuing battles for LGBT rights, Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
Iris Bohnet, What Works: Gender Equality by Design, Harvard, 2016
Alison Wolf, The XX Factor: How seventy million working women created a new society, Profile Books, 2013
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous women and feminism, University of Queensland, 2000