Noticing Care

Giving and receiving care is an essential part of how we nurture and sustain each other’s well-being. We likely experience acts of care in our everyday lives; in the hot meals that our loved ones make us, in the sense of safety we feel when we are held by our friends, in the bravery of activists who continue to fight for our freedoms. Care takes place in the intimacy of our homes, and in the less private spheres of our schools, hospitals, workplaces, on the streets, and on the internet.

Yet, the enduring presence of care in our lives may sometimes render it invisible. The mental, emotional, and material labor that we invest, or that our caretakers invest, is not always seen, valued, or acknowledged.

This course is an invitation for us to learn to notice together the role of care in our lives: How are we cared for? How do we take care of ourselves and others? Every week, we will engage in discussion about a form of care that we experience, and reflect on the kind of labor it involves. We will explore different forms of care such as motherhood, friendship, activism, teaching and mentorship, and online community support, among others. We will ask questions about our own personal stories of care, the contradictory emotions and tensions that we go through when we give/receive care, how different forms of care are valued (culturally, socially and economically), and the ways in which class and gender influence our perceptions of care labor.