Courses

Recommended for the CRES major, minor or emphasis
Prerequisites: None
Description: This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of comparative race and ethnic studies. Students will examine the interconnections between race, ethnicity, and the social, political, and cultural frameworks and attitudes in the U.S. Questions the course explores include: When and how did the concept of race arise? How does race connect with other forms of difference such as class, gender, and sexuality? How do our personal experiences with racial identity and racism relate to the structure of our society? How have Race and Ethnic Studies scholars explored areas such as immigration, popular culture, education, and imperialism? And how have concerns for social justice and equity shaped the field of Race and Ethnic Studies?

Required for the CRES major, minor or emphasis
Prerequisites: CRES 10103 — Engaging Difference and Diversity in America (recommended) OR any one (1) approved CRES-attribute course.
Description: This course will provide an intermediate survey of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, focusing on Critical Race Theory. Students will explore race as a social structure, a historical process, a mode of power, and a lived experience. While the idea of race as socially constructed has become common sense in the twenty-first century, we will go further by using Critical Race Theory to examine how scholars, artists, and activists have applied these methods across and beyond the university. Themed units will focus on intersectionality, whiteness, indigeneity, racial capitalism, and mass incarceration.

Fulfills the inquiry/research associated requirement for the CRES major
Prerequisites: CRES 20003 — Gateway Seminar
Description: This course will introduce students to basic concepts, methods, and issues of interdisciplinary research methods pertinent to the study of race and ethnicity. This course will focus on the broader issues surrounding the production of knowledge, and students will acquire a variety of data or information collection and analytic skills. Students will develop a thesis proposal of their own design in the field of race and ethnic studies.

Prerequisites: Any WGST-prefix or attribute course OR any CRES-prefix or Primary attribute course or SOWO 10833.
Description: This interdisciplinary course examines diverse gender justice movements from an intersectional perspective, emphasizing how intersecting social identities (race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, citizenship status, etc.) impact the experience of systemic oppressions and thus should shape the political interventions employed in the name of social justice. The course incorporates empirically grounded and theoretical scholarship from multiple disciplines to consider diverse methods of social action on the local and/or global levels. Students will examine the practical and logistical concerns of doing intersectional activism and develop skills for building consensus across difference.

Prerequisites: Any WGST-prefix or attribute course OR any CRES-prefix or primary attribute course.
Description: An interdisciplinary course exploring the feminist theories, traditions, activisms, discourses, and praxes of women of color in a US context. Using an intersectional approach, the course examines how race, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship status, ability, religion, and other markers of identity create complex systems of marginalization in the lives of women of color in the United States. Students will analyze the contributions US women of color have made to contemporary feminist thought and how these theories have influenced their activism.

Prerequisites: Any WGST-prefix or attribute course OR any CRES-prefix or primary attribute course.
Description: This interdisciplinary course considers the fundamental place of gender and sexuality in shaping a range of cultural narratives and examines how various movements related to gender and sexuality have been constructed, contextualized, and regulated in different parts of the world. The course analyzes the gendered dimensions of complex phenomenon such as colonialism, globalization, and capitalism and situates liberal Western feminism’s history and contemporary articulation within global systems of power. Students will develop an analytical framework for examining the intersections of social justice, transnational identities, and feminism.

Required for the CRES major; open to selected minor and emphasis students
Prerequisites: CRES 30003 — Interdisciplinary Inquiry OR an approved research methods course listed under the CRES associated requirements OR another methods course with program permission. Limited to CRES majors/minors OR minors in CRES-affiliated programs with approval.
Description: This course gives each student the opportunity to produce an article-length, substantive original research paper or the equivalent length new media, creative, or legacy project with accompanying justification essay. Using one or more (inter-) disciplinary approaches to inquiry, students will choose a particular problem or subject, design a plan for how to tackle the issue, and then explore it in great detail for the entire semester, culminating in a polished capstone project essay as well as a community presentation of their research findings or creative products.

Prerequisites: Permission of the Internship Coordinator.
Description: Unlike a traditional class, an internship and field research experience is a self-directed learning experience, where students will integrate comparative race and ethnic theory and practice in a professional setting. This course is designed to allow you to take theoretical knowledge into the field, apply it, and reflect on the experience. It is an opportunity for you to explore a career area before graduation, to obtain work experience, skills and contacts for future job seeking and/or graduate school application, and to develop your knowledge of comparative race and ethnicity through a combination of practical experience, field research, and scholarly research.