Suburb or city? Single-family home, row house or apartment? Where we live influences our access to schools, jobs, transportation options, safety (or crime), and many other life-altering opportunities. How we live also matters: we have pervasive cultural beliefs about homeownership as a social good, renting as something lesser and transient, and homelessness as a sign of personal failings. In this course we will critically examine homeownership, homelessness, communal living (including dorms), and neighborliness. We will also think about how inequality is woven into all of these housing situations; examining how race, class, gender, age, and sexuality may each influence our housing choices, or contribute to our lack of choices. Students will not only read what scholars have concluded about these processes; they will also conduct their own research using content analysis, field observations, and analysis of census data, thereby building our understanding of housing and neighborhoods. We will also explore Fredericksburg, coming to learn more about the community through conducting field-based research and service-learning activities.