IRP has introduced a biennial Teaching Poverty 101 Workshop to share its expertise developed over nearly a half century as the nation’s original poverty research center. The workshop is designed to train and provide course materials to faculty who wish to develop poverty-related course content.

Often faculties at teaching institutions are not able to incorporate current poverty related research into their course materials, for a lack of specialized knowledge or other resource constraints. The training will target faculty from a broad range of institutions, including those that traditionally have not had the capacity to foster a program of poverty research.

Workshops are open to all college faculty and instructors in any postsecondary institution–university, college, or community college. Each workshop will cover key issues in poverty research and policy, and, drawing on the diverse disciplinary training of IRP faculty affiliates, will provide teaching materials appropriate to the specific field.

The program will cover the full range of topics in this area, including the concept of poverty and its measurement and study, the causes of poverty, including the labor market, family structure, education system, race/gender and culture, and the role of public policy in reducing poverty. The perspective will be multidisciplinary, and include presentations by distinguished scholars from the disciplines of sociology, economics, health, education, and social welfare.

Applicants need not have prior experience in poverty studies, but must be committed to including material from the workshop in future courses.

The inaugural workshop takes place June 2-6, 2013, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The deadline for application is January 4, 2013, with selected participants being notified by February 1.