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The development of an intermediate-level undergraduate course on the question, What is a family?

My proposed course, What is a Family?, offers a sustained examination of key texts in the humanities that have shaped Western thought on the family. Texts by Sophocles, Locke, Engels, Freud, and Steichen comprise the core readings, offering diverse historical and theoretical arguments for the meaning and social value of the family. These texts prompt reflection on such topics as kinship and loyalty; the family as a model for the state; the family as an economic institution; the family as a site of psychological conflict; and the family as keeper of national memory. Students will complete a range of writing assignments, attend film and photography screenings, and produce a comprehensive "annotated digital photo album," analyzing images and stories of family from the perspectives of course readings. The course will include a private tour of the photography and artifacts collection at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, illustrating links between familial and national identity.