CSI : Undergraduate Program

Minor in Inequality Studies

NEW! Profiles of Alumni

Telephone: 254-8674
email: inequality@cornell.edu

The Minor in Inequality Studies 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; and an interdisciplinary minor thus allows students to combine these resources into an integrated program of study. The institutional home for the Minor in Inequality Studies is the Center for the Study of Inequality (located at 363 Uris Hall).

The Minor in Inequality Studies 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 graduate education in such fields as public policy, economics, government, law, history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, and philosophy.

The Minor in Inequality Studies is not a major, but rather 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. If the requirements of the minor are met, a special notation to this effect will be recorded on the student's academic record.

Minor Requirements

The Minor in Inequality Studies exposes students to the breadth of approaches, methods, and topic areas on offer while also allowing them to tailor a program to their particular interests. The requirements include an overview course, Controversies About Inequality (SOC/D SOC/PAM/ILROB 2220, PHIL 1950, and GOVT 2225) , and four electives. See course list for further details. For questions about course requirements, contact CSI. Although students may tailor their programs to match their interests, the electives and overview course must be distributed across at least three departments. Students must maintain a grade C or better in all minor courses.

Lectures and Seminars

The Center for the Study of Inequality hosts occasional lectures and symposia, and minors are expected to attend them when possible. These events will be announced via email and are also listed on the Events Calendar.

Application Procedure

Students interested in pursuing a Minor in Inequality Studies should complete the top portion of the application and return it CSI (363 Uris Hall.) Students should regularly update CSI on progress towards their completion of the Minor in Inequality Studies. An official transcript is needed to certify completion of the minor once course requirements are met.

Sample Programs

The Minor in Inequality Studies allows students considerable flexibility in devising programs that reflect their interests. Listed below are ten sample tracks, each comprising a different set of possible electives.

General Track: The objective of the general track is to provide a broad foundation that addresses both the many forms of inequality (e.g., class, gender, ethnic) as well as the various approaches and perspectives (e.g., economic, sociological, historical) that have been brought to bear on these forms.
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.
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.
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 judgments? 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.
Poverty and Economic Development: Over the last century, rich countries have of course become yet richer, while less developed countries remain burdened with massive poverty. These courses 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.
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 the future of such social movements and the reactions they spawn.
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 (punitive) 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.
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 Family and Inequality: Although workers in modern labor markets are often analytically treated as independent individuals, they of course typically belong to families that pool the labor supply of their members, consume goods jointly, and serve in some circumstances as units of collective production. It might therefore be asked how the modern labor market has adapted to and evolved in the context of the family (and how the family has responded to the market). The courses within this track explore such issues as the causes and consequences of the intra-familial division of labor, the effects of marriage and family structure on careers, and the transmission of socioeconomic advantage from one generation to the next.