Florence Heller Graduate School

Jack Shonkoff, Dean

S = Faculty

See the School's catalog

L =

The Heller School offers both a Ph.D. degree in Social Policy and a Master of Management degree with optional concentrations in Health Care and Child, Youth, and Family Services. The school also offers, in conjunction with the University's Hornstein Program, a double degree in management and Jewish communal services. The faculty consists of social scientists from a variety of disciplines and well-known experienced practitioners in major service areas.

The following Heller School courses (designated HSSW) are available, with the instructor's approval, to qualified undergraduates.

S = Courses of Instruction

HSSW 104b American Health Care: A System in Crisis

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Enrollment limited to 220.

This course will examine and critically analyze the United States health care system, emphasizing the major trends and issues that have led to the current sense of "crisis." In addition to providing a historical perspective, this course will establish a context for analyzing the current, varied approaches to health care reform. Usually offered every year.

Messrs. Altman and Thier

HSSW 253b Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Signature of the instructor required.

Focuses on how people in organizations behave. Students are given an opportunity to both investigate and experience the relevance of the behavioral sciences to the study of human problems in organizations. Through managerial case studies and experiential exercises, this course explores how individual and group structures and processes, as well as the broader environmental context, make managers in the organization either effective or ineffective. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Chilingerian

HSSW 255a Management Information Systems

Signature of the instructor required.

Designed to help students deal intelligently with the choices involved in using computers. Main focus is on management tools and the use of computers to improve the performance of organizations. Students will become familiar with basic MIS concepts, with the systems development process, and with a range of important applications and issues. Knowledge of Lotus 1-2-3 and familiarity with VAX required. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Lazarus

HSSW 300a Social Context of Policy Issues

Signature of the instructor required.

Explores sources, evolution, and dynamics of social, economic, and political institutions, and of policies, values, and ideologies for human relations and social power, and for the circumstances and quality of life of individuals, groups, and peoples. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Gil

HSSW 316a Violence in Everyday Life: Sources, Dynamics, and Prevention

Signature of the instructor required.

This seminar explores the meaning, sources, and dynamics of social-structural and inter-personal violence, and relations among these destructive phenomena. It traces social, psychological, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of violence and counter-violence in everyday life, with special emphasis on links between the organization and quality of work in society and levels of violence. It also explores approaches toward reducing and eventually eliminating violence in human relations from local to global levels. Usually offered in even years.

Mr. Gil

HSSW 319a Work, Individual and Social Development, and Social Welfare

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Signature of the instructor required.

Studies a key variable of human existence: work. It explores changes over time and across cultures in the meaning, organization, and design of work, and in the exchange and distribution of products of work. Uses a multi-disciplinary approach, for work has biological roots; is defined, shaped, maintained, and transformed through social, cultural, and political processes; is affected by scientific and technological developments; and has psychological, social economic, and ecological dimensions and consequences. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Gil

HSSW 326a Race, Class, and Gender

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Signature of the instructor required.

This course will define and analyze how race, class, and culture function as variables in policy formation. Attention will be paid to the issues of immigration, family structure, and poverty in relation to African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. The working poor and the central role of work in the history of American social welfare policy will be examined. Usually offered every year.

Ms. Williams

HSSW 333b Feminism, Law, and Social Policy

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Signature of the instructor required.

This course provides a systematic introduction to the way claims of gender discrimination are and have been treated by the American legal system, and acquaints students with the structure of constitutional and statutory legal doctrine that governs this area. In addition, it introduces students to the ways the law treats important social policy issues of concern to women; and it explores contemporary feminist thinking about the possibilities and limits of using law as an instrument of political reform. Usually offered every year.

Ms. Stone.

HSSW 350a Managerial Economics

Prerequisite: ECON 2a. Signature of the instructor required.

Investigates the limits of the private, public, and voluntary sectors in the economy in general and in the social protection system in particular. Other topics include federalism, the tax system, and income transfer. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Friedman

HSSW 355b Welfare Reform and the Economics of Poverty

Prerequisite: ECON 2a. Signature of the instructor required.

This course will explore the current debate over welfare reform within the context of the economics of poverty. Focusing on the last two decades, it will examine the impact on poverty and welfare of the rising inequality in earnings, the increase in single parenthood, and the welfare system itself. The course then returns to the policy options, exploring their likely effectiveness. Usually offered in even years.

Mr. Friedman

HSSW 400a Introduction to Statistics

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Signature of the instructor required.

Introduces students to basic concepts of research design and statistical techniques. It will be expected that, upon completion of the semester course, students will be able to apply statistical techniques and use the computer for basic data analysis. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Kurtz

HSSW 401b Research Methods

Signature of the instructor required.

Reviews basic approaches and methods for designing research. Included is an orientation to developing social science knowledge, issues on sampling, basic approaches including experimental designs, survey methods, and quantitative research. The semester project consists of designing a research project. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Kurtz

HSSW 540b Families, Work, and the Changing Economy

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Prerequisite: ECON 2a for economic concentrators. Signature of the instructor required.

Explores changing family structures and roles of family members in relation to paid work and to family well being. Particular attention is given to the experience and consequences of women's increasing labor force participation exemplified in two worker families, among other family forms, and to the economic circumstances leading to a higher incidence of poverty in single parent families. Usually offered every year.

Ms. Kahne

HSSW 544a Children and Youth At Risk

Signature of the instructor required.

Aimed at providing students with an introduction to major themes in children and adolescent policy. Focuses on policies and programs that promote self-sufficiency of disadvantaged young Americans through job training, education, income support, and other antipoverty strategies. Covers historical themes as well as the current status of children and youth. Usually offered every year.

Mr. Hahn

HSSW 549a Family Policy

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Signature of the instructor required. A library intensive course.

Shows how family policy developed out of changes in family structure and women's roles. In America, the key question has been how much should be done by government or employers compared with the family itself. We examine the new thinking on family policy, particularly as it concerns caregiving and work. Usually offered every year.

Ms. Giele

S = Cross-Listed Courses

SOC 218b

Advanced Topics in Social Theory and Methods