2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog

Ethnic and Race Studies

The Ethnic and Race Studies program employs high-quality interdisciplinary scholarship to encourage critical discussion and gain deeper understanding of communities of color in the United States. Engagement with content and theory about ethnically and racially diverse communities will help students develop critical thinking skills and perspectives, expand their comfort level with civic engagement, and build cultural competence in working with diverse groups. The Ethnic and Race Studies program is academically rigorous, methodologically inclusive, interdisciplinary, and engages in critical inquiry of experiences of racial and ethnic groups in the United States. 

Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic and Race Studies

31 credits minimum, 23 credits minimum upper division

Required Courses (7-8 Unites)

Electives (24 Unites)

* Electives must be taken from at least three different disciplines.

Required for Major:
ERS 101Introduction to Ethnic and Race Studies4
ERS 401Ethnic and Race Studies Seminar4
Elective Credits:
Electives must be taken from at least 3 different disciplines
ART 105American Art4
CRIM 430Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Crime4
ENGL 350Studies in African-American Literature4
ENGL 353Gender and Literature: U.S. Diversity4
ENGL 361Contemporary Chicano Literature4
or SPAN 361 Contemporary Chicano Literature
HIST 326Civil War: Slavery to Civil Rights4
POLS 413Music and the Civil Rights Movement4
RLTH 378Asian Religions in the United States4
SOC 200Sexuality and Society4
or SOC 300 Sexuality and Society
SOC 210Introduction to Gender Studies4
or WOMS 210 Introduction to Gender Studies
SOC 318Immigration in the Global Age4
SOC 360Racial and Ethnic Relations4
TA 101Introduction to the Theatre Arts4

Courses

Lower Division

ERS 101. Introduction to Ethnic and Race Studies. (4).

This introductory Ethnic Studies class draws upon interdisciplinary approaches to understand and problematize the study of race and ethnicity in the United States. The class will discuss the social construction of race and ethnicity coupled with the intersectionality of identify and positionality across race, class, gender and sexuality.

ERS 3ST. Special Topics. (1-4).

ERS 4ST. Special Topics. (4).

Upper Division

ERS 300. Race and the City in Film. (4).

Films are a popular mode of discourse in our globalized society. We have all grown up watching films or at least familiar with the concept of cinema as entertainment. Yet, films do more than entertain. Our understanding of our world is mediated in part, through cinematic representations. In this class we analyze how films have represented and negotiated meanings of 'race' in cities at various historical moments. Also, through representations of cities in film, we can also understand in addition to race how class, gender, sexuality, and ability representations throughout the twentieth century and into the early twenty-first are mediated, coded, read, and resisted. In this course, we will view films in which the city, or ideas about the `urban' play an important role in understanding contemporary issues. We will watch films from the 1920s to the contemporary moment from various film genres. We will focus on several themes as we read and understand the 'racialized city' such as urban form.

ERS 334. Sociology of Education. (4).

This course provides an overview of sociological theories of education and current research about education in the United States. Analysis will include the school as a social institution comprised of specific roles, values, and norms. We will examine the role of schooling in both reproducing and challenging social inequalities with an emphasis on how social class, race, gender, ethnicity, immigration, and sexual orientation impact the organization of school, the development of curricula, and the experiences of students. Minimum Sophomore standing.

ERS 401. Ethnic and Race Studies Seminar. (4).

Seminar discussions are designed to synthesize and assess knowledge in Ethnic Studies courses. Field work is required to apply theories and concepts to everyday experiences of people of color.

ERS 492. Internship. (1-4).