CoursesEconomics and Theories of Fairness (NEW)
ECON 0460

Economics and Theories of Fairness (NEW)

Free markets excel at producing wealth, but seem to do so at the cost of economic inequality. Is this inequality unjust? Is it a problem economics and public policy should solve? Liberal democracies have traditionally had the protection of private property as a core mandate. But they also have varying degrees of redistribution in order to fund social welfare systems. How can we reconcile these objectives which seem to conflict? Is the protection of individual rights more important than the promotion of the greatest good for all? To what extent can personal liberty and the common good be reconciled?

Instructor(s)
  • Michael T. Kane
  • Sarah L. H. Gronningsater
Semester

Fall 2025

Register

In this course, we will use the philosophical concept of justice to address these and other related questions. We will draw from the economic history, political theory, and the history of philosophy in order to acquire a framework for understanding the concepts of justice, liberty, rights, and equality. We shall then apply this historical and conceptual framework to discussion topics and case studies drawn from present day economics and contemporary social issues. In this way, we shall come to understand economics as more than a social science of laws and theorems. Instead we shall see how economics as an applied science influences the well-being of the whole of society.

Faculty: Michael Kane

Related Content

Other Courses of Interest

ENGL 0765 - 301

Podcasting

Instructor(s)

  • Chris Mustazza

Semester

Fall 2025

Podcasting has become one of the most popular ways of disseminating the voice, supplanting radio. It has even been a primary driver of the growth of music streaming services like Spotify. This creative-critical seminar situates the podcast historically, analyzes current instantiations of the genre, and teaches hands-on skills to create your own podcasts. The course also frames podcasts as a form of asynchronous dialogue that can be critically engaged with and utilized as a mechanism to comment on societal issues.

Learn More
ANTH 3100/ANTH5100

Middle Passages and Returns (NEW)

Instructor(s)

  • Deborah Thomas

Semester

Fall 2025

This course will engage students in questions of slavery, indentured labor, migration, and repair through the conceptual frameworks of middle passages and returns. We will collectively investigate the routes and roots through which and from which people have traveled back and forth between African, Asian, and American sites in order to ask complicated questions about travel, conscription, labor, spirituality, and self-narration. How do we think about the complex trajectories that brought Africans and Asians to the Americas?  How do we excavate lesser known inter- and intra-continental circulations? In what ways is return theoretically and methodologically im/possible? How has repair been envisioned?

Learn More