Our society is not a neutral terrain. Our experiences are situated within a complex web of historical, structural, cultural, political, psychological, and psychic forces that shape our livelihoods. All institutions are dynamic sites in which power and oppression can be contested, resisted, and transformed in our conscious engagement and interaction with them. Through a theoretically informed intersectional feminist lens, we will deeply explore how one’s life possibilities are shaped by who they are as racial/ethnic/ cultural beings in relation to these larger forces – even if in contradictory and messy ways. We will examine an array of “critical issues” impacting the livelihood of historically underserved and underrepresented communities in our nation (e.g. poverty, crime, healthcare, job loss, food insecurity, punitive justice, identity representation, (im)migration, citizenship status, language, civic power, etc.) through three guiding questions:

1. How do these “critical issues” inequitably impact the livelihood of historically underserved and underrepresented communities in our nation?

2. How are these “critical issues” reproduced in society? How do you witness this inequity playing out? (e.g. discriminatory situations, restrictive public policies, negative media images, “socially toxic” urban environments, social pressures ofassimilation, etc.)

3. How can these “critical issues” be disrupted, resisted, and/or transformed toward more equitable livelihoods for historically underserved and underrepresented students in our nation?

The voices of historically underserved and underrepresented racial/ethnic/cultural minority people will be centered in this course for us to continue learning how their lives are intimately shaped by the larger structural, cultural, and political forces at play in this historical moment. As Importantly, we will consider how we as community members (and critical agents of change) might disrupt forms of oppression through our daily resilience, politicized consciousness, collective action, cultural production, and/or possibilities that have yet to be realized.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in any one or more of the following: Native American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latina and Latino American Studies.

2. Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.

3. Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities.

4. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and/or Latina and Latino Americans are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.

5. Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American, African American, Asian American and/or Latina and Latino communities to build a just and equitable society.

Ethnic Studies is NOT "Ethics"

Ethics refers to the standards of right and wrong.

Ethics refers to the rights and obligations of a society.

Ethics refers to the study of individual and moral beliefs.

Ethnic Studies is NOT "Ethnics"

"Ethnics" is not shorthand for Ethnic Studies. 

"Ethnics" is not the plural form of "ethnic" from "ethnic studies." 

Ethnic Studies is...
the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity, as understood through the perspectives of major underrepresented racial groups in the United States.