Inequality, Empowerment, and Privilege

Inequality is among the most pressing issues of our time and lies at the core of both public and scholarly debates about opportunity and diversity. Marginalized people frequently come together on the basis of shared experiences of discrimination. Yet, historically marginalized populations also forge communities and work toward empowerment within groups that, due to their diversity, don’t always work well together or see eye to eye. This themed pathway in “Inequality, Empowerment, and Privilege” provides students an interdisciplinary understanding of inequality and how people and communities from historically marginalized populations work for and attain empowerment of differing kinds. Courses in the pathway examine differential experiences based on gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, disability, and nationality, both within and across groups. The themed pathway gives students an opportunity to engage with important debates on the nature of historical and present-day inequities, the complex negotiations involved in the struggle for empowerment and community-building in unequal contexts, and the intertwined nature of privilege and inequality.

Courses in the pathway will address:

• Structural and historical processes that have established inequalities and privilege
• How inequality and privilege are tied together
• How identities and populations coalesce on the basis of shared experience and marginalized status
• How identities and populations coalesce on the basis of shared political aims, despite diversity within groups
• The structural and socially embedded nature of empowerment, privilege, and inequality

Academic Requirements

• Students choose 6 3-credit courses from the same theme
• At least one course must be at the 300-400 level.
• One course must be a Writing Intensive seminar.
• At least two foundations or pathway minor courses must meet the DEI designation, with one of those at the 300-400 level.
• Courses are chosen based on the following knowledge areas: