Inequality and Social Policy

The Proseminar on Inequality and Social Policy is a required three-semester sequence for second and third year doctoral students in Government and Social Policy, Sociology and Social Policy, and the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy.  Objectives for this semester include:

• To examine what we know and investigate what we might learn about political, economic, social, psychological, and cultural causes and consequences of various forms of inequality.
• To develop a multidisciplinary view of inequality and social policy, and to understand strengths and weaknesses of different methodological and disciplinary approaches to research. Our readings and discussion will consider work from scholars of different disciplines and standpoints.
• To  become  familiar  with  key  policy  issues through scholarly frameworks and analyses of them, and to develop ways  to  judge  the  impact  of  choices  in  those  policy domains among  rich democracies.
• To learn more about how scholarly research is conceived, produced, and developed, and to make significant progress in a publishable research paper on a policy-related question about inequality. A “policy-related question” means any question with demonstrable implications for some actual or proposed government policy. A “research paper” assembles original evidence and develops it in a theoretical or analytic framework.