Join us for Heterodox Academy’s Colloquium Series, a virtual seminar series designed to highlight the scholarship and thought leadership emerging from our community.

This colloquium will feature Michael Jindra, Visiting Research Scholar at Boston University, presenting his research on cultural causes of disparities.

The Perennial Controversy Over Culture and Social Problems

While “structural” causes of social problems like poverty, inequality and poor health get lots of play among academics, cultural causes still get short shrift. Yet they may be the most important. Digging into often-ignored literature from anthropology and sociology, I give a summary of cultural causes of disparities, focusing on subcultural groups and increased lifestyle diversity within Western societies. I also relate this to diverse human motivations, found variously in different groups. 

This colloquium, offered exclusively to HxA members on October 13 from 4:00-5:00 PM ET, will include time for audience discussion and Q&A. You'll hear Michael Jindra shed light on the often-ignored cultural causes of poverty, inequality, and poor health, and get the chance to bring your own questions to the conversation.

Sign in below to register and join the conversation. 

About the speaker

Michael Jindra is a cultural anthropologist at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. Starting out as an Africanist, his more recent writing centers on cultural and lifestyle diversity, and their relationship with social issues and problems. He has also led a recent effort to formulate a proposal for higher ed reforms, which has been discussed in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  For more, see https://michaeljindra.com/biography/