TNDY 407K - Transdisciplinary Approaches to Inequality

This course focuses on two objectives: (1) to understand the nature, the opportunities, and the challenges that arise in transdisciplinary research projects, and (2) to explore discipline-specific (e.g., economics, epidemiology, political science) and transdisciplinary approaches to understand and solve social inequality. In working toward these objectives, this course includes a strong evidence-based theoretical component (vis-à-vis a research-development one). Inequality is transdisciplinary by definition. It is a problem important to society in its own right and it is at the center of complexity—both theoretical and methodological—relevant to many other problems. Social inequality—in its many expressions—requires both problem- and solution-oriented lenses—and none of them belongs to any specific discipline. Research in social, economic, health, political, and life outcomes inequality, therefore, requires the conception of research questions and the development of research designs that transcend specific knowledge bases above and beyond the scope of influence of individual disciplines. This course offers students a unique opportunity to integrate a diversity of theoretical frameworks, methodological traditions, and worldviews via transdisciplinary lenses. By the end of this course, students will understand how the scientific method has been effectively (and sometimes ineffectively) implemented to answer research questions. Students will locate when and where theories and methods from disparate traditions collide. And, equally important, students will understand the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific enterprise, that science works, and that there is not a single-discipline scientific dictatorship to deploy progress and social justice in the world.
Units: 4
Course Type: Seminar