ANTH 420 - Difference and Inequality (SOC 420)

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Investigates the most significant categories of difference on the cultural landscape of American society—social class, race, sex and gender, sexual identity and disability. Course content emphasizes structural inequality and the social construction of difference and privilege. The construction of difference is analyzed by deconstructing racialized, gendered, heteronormative and ableist hierarchal structures and theoretical explanations on social reproduction and social change. How do categories of people come to be seen as “different”? How does being seen as “different” affect peoples’ lived experience? What meaning does difference and inequality have for social interaction, social institutions, or culture? What difference does “difference” make? How does science and popular culture produce meaning relative to difference and inequality? What role does ideology play in the construction, experience and meaning of difference? Particular attention is given to the interaction and intersections among categories of difference. Prerequisite: ANTH or SOC 225. Fall and Spring.