Craft & Consciousness WNY 305

Instructor: Robert Jackall

Craft & Consciousness
Fall 2007
Williams Club, unless otherwise noted
All seminars are 4:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m., unless otherwise noted

A sociological examination of how craft shapes consciousness. How and in what ways do work experiences shape habits of mind, sensibilities, moral rules-in-use, ways of seeing and knowing, images of our society, and world views? How do men and women in different occupations and professions establish criteria of validity and reliability to assess their work experiences? How do they develop and internalize rules for discernment that enable them to sort through multiple and always conflicting versions and representations of social reality? How do they make moral judgments on complex business, political, and social issues? How and with what results do common work experiences shape close-knit occupational communities in a great metropolis? The course will pay particular attention to the functionally interconnected but experientially disparate occupational worlds of New York City.

The course will host men and women from a wide range of occupations and professions—from police detectives to policy analysts, journalists, filmmakers, artists, educators, attorneys, corporate executives, and scientists—to discuss their work and work worlds with students. Several Williams alumni and alumnae will participate in the course. Format: discussion seminar. Requirements: full participation in the seminar, term paper.


1. W 12 September. Herbert A. Allen ’62, Allen & Company. Seminar meets at 711 Fifth Avenue. Restricted to students in the fall 2007 program.

2. W 19 September. Jack Wadsworth ’61. Morgan Stanley, San Francisco

3. W 26 September. Bridget Brennan. The Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York

4. W 3 October

5. W 10 October. Austin Francis Muldoon, NYPD, and Edmund Hartnett, Police Commissioner, Yonkers

6. W 17 October. Glenn Lowry ‘76, Director, Museum of Modern Art. Seminar meets at MoMA

7. W 24 October. Ricardo Castañeda, Chief, Department of Psychiatry, Bellevue Hospital

8. W 31 October. Steve Jenkins, Vice President, Fairway Markets, and Professor Darra Goldstein, Williams College, editor of Gastronomica

9. W 7 November. Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian Emeritus, United States House of Representatives, and Peter Willmott ‘59

10. W 14 November. Panel presentation by Melissa Barton, Nichole Beiner, Lauren Bloch, Emily Fowler-Cornfeld, Craig Hand, Elizabeth Kantack, Rebekkah Marrs, and Nicole McNeil, all Williams College 2009, on their fall 2007 field experiences in the Williams in New York program. All field sponsors are invited to this session and to a dinner following at the Williams Club. 5:30 p.m. Each student will give a succinct, lively, five-minute oral presentation about his/her fieldwork experiences during the semester.

11. W 28 November. Stacy Cochran ’81, film director

12. W 5 December. Clayton Spencer ’77, Vice President for Policy, Harvard University.


The course is taught by Robert Jackall, Willmott Family Third Century Professor, Sociology & Public Affairs, and Co-director of Williams in New York.

All alumni and alumnae are invited to attend all the sessions of the seminar.


Format: discussion seminar.
Requirements: full participation in the seminar, term paper.