The Social Difference and Power requirement ensures that all students engage in questions of social difference and power at least twice during their course of study at Connecticut College. Students may choose to take these courses at any time and may take them as part of their Connections general education courses, major or minor courses or electives.  In Social Difference and Power courses, students will develop: a more informed understanding of systemic forms of inequality and underlying structures of power and their disproportionate impact on underrepresented and/or marginalized peoples and communities; deeper analyses of social identity and difference. Students will articulate alternative visions for the future that challenge systems of inequality and injustice by:

  • Questioning social location, including how social location shapes human interactions, socially, politically, and economically
  • Examining the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexuality, class, documentation/citizenship, and ability
  • Critiquing systems of power that structure gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexuality, class, documentation/citizenship, and ability
  • Analyzing from multiple perspectives the historical origins of ethnocentrism, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, colonialism, ableism, sexism, anarchism, capitalism, etc.