INQ-277 | All Poverty is Not Equal

Crosslisted As: SOCI277

Topic Description:

This course provides a unique opportunity to explore and reflect on poverty in the contemporary United States. This course will allow students to better understand poverty by engaging with two fundamental questions: What is a life of poverty like in the U.S., and what are the differences between urban and rural poverty? Second, what are the best strategies for combating poverty, especially in nonmetropolitan areas? Students taking the course will examine poverty in several ways. First, we will spend time in the classroom, where we will assess the structural causes of poverty through assigned reading, critical reflection and group discussion. Students will have the opportunity to learn first-­‐hand about others’ lived experiences of poverty through a week-­‐long volunteering trip to the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation. Finally, we will return to the classroom to discuss our experiences and reflect on the special challenges nonmetropolitan poverty presents to anti-­‐poverty policymakers. By participating in this course, students will gain knowledge about how social scientists and policymakers measure poverty, will become more familiar with the difficulties of life for the impoverished and working poor and will gain a sense of the kind of social change necessary to address this form of inequality in U.S. society.

Course Types Offered: Travel

Topic Approved: February 2014