Race and Ethnic Studies Program
This interdisciplinary academic program focuses on developing students' intercultural competencies through the lens of race, ethnicity, and social justice. The goal of the program is to cultivate the intersectional thinking necessary to address systemic differences in power in order to pursue equity, inclusion, and forward the University’s mission of serving the common good.
Race and Ethnic Studies Committee
Tom Morgan (English), Director
Amin (History, Alumni Chair in the Humanities), Burnley (Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion), Cox (Music), Damasco (University Libraries), Graham (Associate Dean of Students and Office of Multicultural Affairs Executive Director), James (Philosophy, Women and Gender Studies Director, Keen (Director of Assessment and Student-Centered Analytics), Picca (Sociology, Roesch Chair in the Social Sciences), and Velasquez (Philosophy)
Minors:
Minor in Africana Studies (AFS)
The Africana studies minor offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the peoples of Africa and African descendants in the Americas, Africa, and throughout the diaspora. Through its courses, the minor encourages service at the local, national, and international level. The minor prepares distinctive graduates to develop and use analytical skills and approaches to understand historical and contemporary issues associated with the experience of Africans and African descendants. The minor is interdisciplinary and structured to incorporate teaching and research methodologies and materials from disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences and other schools throughout the University.
The Africana studies minor requires 15 semester hours. It must include one approved "Special Topics" or "Independent Study" course from an appropriate discipline and 12 semester hours in upper division courses (300-level or above) from a minimum of three different disciplines.
| Africana Studies | ||
| Select four courses from at least three different disciplines: | 12 | |
| Educating Diverse Student Populations in Inclusive Settings | ||
| African American Literature | ||
| History of Africa I: Pre-history to the 19th Century | ||
| History of Africa - 19th Century to the Present | ||
| History of the Caribbean | ||
| The Atlantic World, 1492-1800 | ||
| African American History before 1877 | ||
| History of Blacks in the United States Since 1900 | ||
| Seminar in African History | ||
| African-American Sacred Music | ||
| History of American Jazz | ||
| Ensembles | ||
| African Philosophy | ||
| Race, Gender and Philosophy | ||
| African-American Religion | ||
| Racial & Ethnic Relations | ||
| Select one special topics course from: | 3 | |
| Special Topics in Music | ||
| Special Topics | ||
| Special Problems | ||
Special topics or independent studies course approved by committee | ||
| Total Hours | 15 | |
Minor in Race and Social Justice (RSJ)
The Race and Social Justice minor is designed to develop students’ intercultural competencies by focusing primarily on the experiences of American-based domestic racial and ethnic populations. By giving students the awareness, context, and theory necessary to help them engage racial issues in a thoughtful and respectful manner, students will develop an understanding of systemic impact of race on American life, as well as the way race functions as a social construct, one directly connected to systems of power and privilege. This knowledge will allow students to better incorporate race into the larger social justice mission of the Marianist charism, and to also better value the diversity of cultural experiences that make up American life.
The minor consists of 15 semester hours, 9 of which will come from completing one course that fulfills each of the following three SLOs, with the remaining 6 credits being electives of their choice.
SLO 1 Awareness: Demonstrating the critical vocabulary necessary to discuss race, gender, sexuality, and other intersectional dimensions of difference in a productive and respectful manner in conjunction with the cultural, social, and historical contexts producing these conditions.
SLO 2 Context: Understanding the specific issues facing different non-dominant groups, and exploring the way race influences ways of being and living in the world while also understanding the way that intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. complicate assumptions of race, both experientially and abstractly.
SLO 3 Theory: Learning the theories and methods of different academic disciplines in regards to race and racial thought as a means to understand the way systemic racial inequity functions across the entire spectrum of human activity, be it socially, politically, economically, or historically, to name but a few
| Student Learning Outcomes | ||
| Awareness (select one course from the following) | 3 | |
| Introduction to Human Rights | ||
| African American History before 1877 | ||
| Latin American Art | ||
| Educating Diverse Student Populations in Inclusive Settings | ||
| Context (select one course from the following) | 3 | |
| US Latina/Latino Literature | ||
| Liberation Theologies | ||
| Understanding Sacred Music & Worship in the Local Church | ||
| Criminal Justice Ethics | ||
| Theory (select one course from the following) | 3 | |
| Race, Gender and Philosophy | ||
| Racial & Ethnic Relations | ||
| Gender, Women’s Rights and Global Politics | ||
| Electives (choose 6 credits from the following) | 6 | |
| Criminal Justice Ethics | ||
| Comparative Criminal Justice Systems | ||
| Educating Diverse Student Populations in Inclusive Settings | ||
| African American Literature | ||
| American Indian Literature | ||
| Asian-American Literature | ||
| Literature & Human Rights | ||
| US Latina/Latino Literature | ||
| Introduction to Human Rights | ||
| Native American History | ||
| African American History before 1877 | ||
| History of Blacks in the United States Since 1900 | ||
| African-American Sacred Music | ||
| Understanding Sacred Music & Worship in the Local Church | ||
| Hip Hop and Philosophy | ||
| Race, Gender and Philosophy | ||
| Afro-Caribbean Philosophy | ||
| Philosophy & Cultural Diversity | ||
| Politics of Human Rights | ||
| Gender, Women’s Rights and Global Politics | ||
| Latino/Latina Religious Experiences | ||
| African-American Religion | ||
| Liberation Theologies | ||
| Racial & Ethnic Relations | ||
| Social Inequality | ||
| Social Justice & Dramatic Literature | ||
| History of Art and Activism | ||
| Latin American Art | ||
| Comparative Visual Culture in Film | ||
| Total Hours | 15 | |