Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
mystery of human cooperation
Instructor(s): Sanchit Shrivastava, Economics
Humans cooperate with others in ways that are unmatched in the natural world. We share
resources, enforce social norms, create institutions, and use stories and moral frameworks
to guide collective behavior. This course examines how human cooperation evolved and
how it continues to be maintained鈥攁nd challenged鈥攁cross different social contexts.
Drawing on perspectives from biology, zoology, psychology, economics, anthropology,
history, and literary studies, the course explores how different disciplines ask distinct
questions about cooperation and use different kinds of evidence to answer them. Through
close reading, discussion, simulations, and collaborative inquiry, students will analyze
why cooperation emerges, what threatens it, and how societies encourage cooperative
behavior. The course also invites students to reflect on their own experiences with
cooperation and to consider how insights from multiple fields can deepen our understanding
of complex human behavior.
Course Offered: 2026