Class Descriptions

Proseminar in Social Work and Social Science

SW800

Course Description

This is a seminar about the nature of research and scholarship for the students in the joint program in Social Work and Social Science. The basic motivating question for the seminar is a daunting one. It concerns the nature, place and practice of scholarship in a complex multidisciplinary context that emphasizes learning about not only the requirements of developing basic knowledge as an end in itself but also the skills, processes, procedures and routines associated with the use of that knowledge to help solve problems that impinge on, or directly disrupt the quality of peoples lives. A central assumption is
that similar to other forms of scholarship, expertise in scholarship in a combined professional/academic context is not automatic. Instead it involves the purposive acquisition of habits, skills and attitudes that enable people to contribute to professional and academic advances in their chosen field of inquiry. The first semester focuses on the early stages of this development. As such, it seeks to establish an orientation to the development of scholarship that will continue once the seminar is over. That is to say, it seeks to engage students in an examination of the practices, styles and domains of scholarship in the multidisciplinary contexts of social work, social welfare and social science so that they may begin to
evolve an approach to scholarship suited to their own interests, inclinations and capabilities. Throughout the term, various topics pertinent to making explicit the requirements and practices of scholarship will be discussed based on focused readings on each topic. The second semester, taken at the end of coursework, is focused on identifying how the integration of social work and social science knowledge can be the basis of the social work prelim or dissertation project.