Justice

In a just world, everyone would be treated fairly. However, climate change, economic exploitation and profound income inequality, institutionalized violence against marginalized people, and disparate health impacts for vulnerable groups in the face of COVID-19 all highlight the ways the actual world is profoundly unjust. It is vitally important to think deeply and carefully about those injustices and to explore the ways that they structure people’s lives.

In this Inquiry, students study what injustice is and the ways that it plays out in different areas of social life, focusing in particular on racial injustice, gender injustice, economic injustice, and environmental injustice, as well as how those different systems intersect with and build off of each other.

Enrolled in this Inquiry?—Click here for a requirement checklist.

Inquiry Course Requirements:

Justice students get a broad introduction to the study of justice and injustice by taking one of the following:

1. Art of Political Protest (ARTH 250)
   Race and Culture in the American Museum (ARTH 255)
   Race and Place (ENST 285)
   Introduction to Ethics (PHIL 120)
   Bioethics ( PHIL 323)
   Environmental Ethics (PHIL 321)
   Meets LEAD Knowledge and Methods outcomes in Humanities and Cultural Literacy

Along with either:

2. Introduction to Politics (POSC 100)
   Or
   Introduction to Sociology (SOCI 100)
   Or
   Race and Place (ENST 285)
   Meets LEAD Knowledge and Methods outcomes in Social and Behavioral Sciences and Cultural Literacy

Students build on this foundation by taking a course that explores how art responds to community needs:

3. Community Arts (ART 269)
   or
   Devising Community-Based Theater (TFMS 390)
   Meets LEAD Knowledge and Methods outcomes in the Arts

And experience how even basic programming skills can be applied to a project focused on justice and injustice:

1. 4. Introduction to Computer Science (COSC 120)

Or
Survey of Mathematics (MATH 131)

When this coursework is finished, all Inquiry students complete:

5. Integrated Learning Portfolio (1 credit)

6. In addition, all Justice Inquiry students take a course that meets the Natural Science requirement for LEAD Exploration. See the catalog for details.

Integrated Learning Portfolio (ILP)

The final requirement for any Inquiry is the Integrated Learning Portfolio. The ILP is the place where students articulate the connections they see among their courses– and where they reflect on the contribution each course makes to the Inquiry topic. Portfolios can include assignments from each Inquiry class, or artifacts from the class itself: images, articles, data– whatever material has been most significant to you.

Assembled as a Google site or through a similar platform, the ILP is submitted as the student completes their Inquiry coursework. During their final semester in the Inquiry, students will be registered for their ILP by the Inquiry Lead. The ILP is worth one credit and graded on a Credit/No Credit basis.

About LEAD Inquiries

LEAD Inquiries give students an opportunity to apply coursework from a range of liberal arts disciplines to a common topic or question. In an Inquiry, students satisfy their LEAD Knowledge and Methods requirements by taking a set of courses– each connected to the Inquiry topic– and completing an Integrated Learning Portfolio. Through their Inquiry coursework, students can fulfill their LEAD Knowledge and Methods requirements in four or five classes (the number varies depending on which Inquiry you take), rather than six.