Courses of Study 2012-2013 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Inequality Minor
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In the College of Arts and Sciences .
The study of inequality lies at the heart of current debates about segregation, affirmative action, the “glass ceiling,” globalization, and any number of other contemporary policy issues. In recent years, public and scholarly interest in issues of inequality has intensified, not merely because of historic increases in income inequality in the United States and other advanced industrial countries, but also because inequalities of race, ethnicity, and gender are evolving in equally dramatic and complicated ways.
The inequality minor allows undergraduate students to supplement their studies for their major with a coherent program of courses oriented toward the study of inequality. Although Cornell University is a leading center of scholarship on poverty and inequality, this strength is necessarily distributed across many departments and colleges; an interdisciplinary minor thus allows students to combine these resources into an integrated program of study. The institutional home for the inequality minor is the Center for the Study of Inequality (located at 363 Uris Hall and at www.inequality.cornell.edu).
The inequality minor is appropriate for students interested in government service, policy work, and related jobs in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as students who wish to pursue post-graduate education in such fields as public policy, economics, government, law, history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and philosophy. In many of these fields, the study of inequality is becoming increasingly central and fundamental, and the inequality minor can therefore provide students with a valuable and unique foundation for further study.
The inequality minor is an interdisciplinary program that should be completed in conjunction with a major. The minor is open to students enrolled in any of the seven Cornell undergraduate colleges. When the requirements of the minor are met, a certification is recorded on a student’s academic record.
Website: www.inequality.cornell.edu
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Minor Requirements:
The inequality minor exposes students to a breadth of approaches, methods, and topic areas while also allowing them to tailor a program to their particular interests. The requirements are as follows: 1. Overview Course:
The required overview course may be selected from any of the six courses listed below. When possible, the overview course should be completed early in the program, as it serves to define the field and to expose students to areas and topics that might be explored in future course work. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
This 3-credit course introduces students to current controversies in the study of inequality while facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue between concentrators and faculty members at Cornell University. Students are exposed to research on inequality under way at Cornell presented by guest lecturers and also participate in debates on pressing inequality-relevant issues (e.g., welfare reform, school vouchers, immigration policy, affirmative action). 3. Electives:
In addition to the overview course and core course, students must select four electives from the list of qualified courses. This list can be viewed on the website for the Center for the Study of Inequality, www.inequality.cornell.edu. Although students may tailor their programs to match their interests, the electives and overview course must be distributed across at least three departments (thereby ensuring breadth in the analytic approaches that are represented). 4. Lectures and Seminars:
The Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) hosts occasional lectures and symposia, and minors are expected to attend them when possible. These events will be announced via e-mail and are also listed on the center website, www.inequality.cornell.edu. Enrolling in the Minor:
The website for the Center for the Study of Inequality, www.inequality.cornell.edu, provides current information on the Inequality Minor. For students considering the minor, it may be useful to schedule a meeting with the assistant to the director (inequality@cornell.edu). Sample Programs:
The inequality minor allows students considerable flexibility in devising programs that reflect their interests. As examples of possible programs, we have listed below sample tracks, each comprising a different set of possible electives. The first program listed below is a general track that provides an overview of the field, while the remaining nine programs are more specialized and focus on particular issues within the field. This sampling of programs is obviously illustrative and does not cover the entire wide range of interests that may be addressed within the minor. Globalization and Inequality:
As a global economy takes hold, there has been increasing concern that economic inequalities will grow apace, especially North–South inequalities between rich and poor countries. The countervailing “optimistic view” is that between-country disparities will in the long run wither away and render inequality an entirely internal, within-country affair. These and related lines of argumentation can be explored in courses that address such topics as trends in income inequality, theories of economic development, emerging patterns of international migration, and globalization and gender. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
Social Policy and Inequality:
In the modern period, inequalities generated in the market and through other social institutions are typically regarded as excessive, and the state is seen as the main tool for redistribution, discrimination abatement, equalization of life chances, and related forms of amelioration. The social policy and inequality track explores the role of the state in generating and reducing inequalities of various kinds. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
The Ethics of Inequality:
Charges of social injustice are often charges of excessive inequality. What are the political, philosophical, and legal debates that are relevant to such judgements? Under what conditions should rich countries assist poor ones? At what point should governments step in and redistribute income? When should parents pass on their wealth to their children? The ethics of inequality track examines the conditions under which inequalities might be deemed legitimate or illegitimate, evaluates prevailing inequalities and social policy as against this yardstick, and explores the larger role of values in popular and scholarly judgments about inequality. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
Poverty and Economic Development:
Over the past century, rich countries have of course become yet richer, while less developed countries remain burdened with massive poverty. The courses listed below examine the sources and causes of world poverty, the rise of global anti-inequality social movements, and the types of policy interventions that might stimulate economic development and reduce poverty. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
Social Movements and Inequality:
The history of modern society may be seen in large part as a history of anti-inequality social movements (e.g., the Enlightenment, socialism, the union movement, the civil rights movement, feminism) interspersed with occasional inequality-inducing reactions (e.g., the post-socialist transition). The social movements track examines the causes, effects, and likely future of such social movements and the reactions they spawn. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
Education and the Reproduction of Inequality:
In the contemporary period, the study of inequality has increasingly turned on the study of formal education, as schools have become the main institutional locus for training and credentialing workers and for signaling potential employers about (putative) worker quality. The inequality and education track examines educational institutions and how they are organized, how they generate equality and inequality, and how possible institutional changes (e.g., vouchers, required testing) might affect the reproduction of inequalities. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
Race and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective:
This program of study examines the many forms of racial and ethnic inequality as revealed across different times and places. When race and ethnicity are examined from an explicitly comparative perspective, it becomes possible to identify regularities and better understand the forces of competition, conflict, and subordination among ethnic and racial groups. The courses listed below address such issues as the causes of discrimination, the implications of residential segregation for inequality, the sources of ethnic and racial differences in income, the effects of anti-inequality reform efforts (e.g., affirmative action), and the possible futures of ethnic and racial stratification. 2. Controversies About Inequality:
3. Possible Electives (choose any four):
Immigration and Ethnicity:
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