Identities in Context

Core Student Learning Outcome that this component is intentionally designed to Introduce, Develop, and Achieve:


[SLO 5] All SLU graduates will be able to analyze how diverse identities influence their lives and the lives of others. Interdependent identities—such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation—shape how people move through and experience the world. The Core helps students assess how identities are constructed historically, culturally, socially, and linguistically. Students will be able to examine values and biases, empathize with others, and connect across cultures.

Core component/course-level learning outcomes

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  • Examine interdependent / interrelational qualities of identity categories such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation

  • Analyze how interdependent / interrelational identities are constructed through and shaped by relations of power

  • Assess how other people’s social identities and biases shape and are shaped by their interactions within a social context

  • Articulate how one’s own notions of identity and otherness are contingent on the social contexts in which they develop and which they in turn shape

Essential Criteria

  • Engage students in an exploration of interdependent / interrelational identities—including but not limited to ethnicity, religion, gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation

  • Require students to examine at least two intersecting identity categories to illuminate this attribute’s central consideration of intersectional identity in formation

  • Lead students in an exploration of the ways in which these identities are constructed—historically, culturally, socially, and/or linguistically—through social interactions within relations of power

  • Require students to reflect on the ways in which their own identities and biases – as well as those of others – shape and are shaped by their life experiences and social context

  • Require students to produce an artifact or artifacts that can be used to assess student achievement of the required course learning outcomes

NOTE: Any course in the University Core, major, or other coursework is eligible to be approved as carrying this attribute except for: Ignite Seminar; Cura Personalis 1, 2, and 3; Eloquentia Perfecta 1; Eloquentia Perfecta 2.