LEAP 1235 - Society and Science LEAP: Human Hierarchies

The course focuses on ways modern Western society has been constructed around the ordering principle of inclusion and exclusion. This dividing line may involve race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, and other markers of difference. We will be especially interested in how social hierarchies (rankings, pecking orders) develop and are perpetuated across time. More optimistically, we will also consider alternative models of social organization and inclusivity. Texts for the course will include fiction, non-fiction, prose poetry, scientific, economic, and socio-philosophical works, as well as popular and documentary film.