Week Ten

As someone else said, it was unclear whether we were supposed to blog this week since there were no readings, but given that we had class and had an interesting discussion about things we should all be thinking about, I'm going to assume we are.

Following the discussion from last Wednesday's class, I'm going to write about where I'm at concerning a topic for my thesis project (assuming I decide to go ahead with it).

When I first signed up for this class, I assumed my project would be something about post-WWII labor and economic history. I was interested in the shift from economic upsurge in the 50s and 60s to economic decline since the mid 70s, and particularly in the role that the move toward a more finance-dominated economy played in this change. In one sense, my topic has grown more specific: I've narrowed in on the 1970s as my period of interest given the immense significance of that decade as a transitional period in the US in many ways.

But in other ways I've just grown more uncertain. I've realized how difficult it is to find a way to make large-scale financial history an appropriate field for a 30-40 page research project without having more than a cursory familiarity with statistical economics. Maybe the solution is to focus on a specific institution, but how to choose one and how to relate it to my broader interests is equally unclear. Furthermore, I've become more and more interested in exploring the intersectionality between financial institutions and racial issues, for example the ways that financial domination of the economy has limited access to economic advancement for people of color, as well as the ways that financial tools like debt have been used to shape urban (and national) geographies along racial lines. But once again, sorting through all of this to find a workable thesis topic is daunting.

As a secondary choice for topic, I've considered doing something in labor history, specifically something in the southeast in the 70s. As Dr. Sacco mentioned during our last class, this was the period when industry began moving to the South (both the southern US and the global south) as part of the process of neoliberalization and union-busting, and this had huge significance for labor in both North and South. It would be much easier to find a workable topic along these lines, and even to include race or gender issues. And, given that I'm likely to have a career working in labor in the south, it seems a fitting topic. For some reason, though, the other topical area just seems more interesting to me...but maybe that's shortsightedness.