ETHN 1004 Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (4 Credits)

Critically examines the concept of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity as categories of social, political, historical, and cultural significance, in the United States and internationally, followed by an investigation of colorblindness, diversity ideology, and modern manifestations of racial inequality. Race and ethnicity are examined as they intersect with gender, sexuality, social class, indigeneity, and immigration status. This course counts toward the Scientific Inquiry: Society and Culture requirement.

ETHN 2004 Quantitative Methods in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (4 Credits)

Students will be introduced to concepts and methodologies for research and writing in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES). Building on what students learned in the Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, this course aims to expose students to the various quantitative ways that knowledge about CRES is formed. Students will practice quantitative techniques using SPSS and empirical writing about race, ethnicity, and inequality. Prerequisite: ETHN 1004.

ETHN 2102 1492: Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, Race (1-2 Credits)

The year 1492 inaugurated a profoundly destructive phase in the history of humanity, but more so for the Indigenous peoples of this hemisphere as Christopher Columbus arrived at the shores of the “New World.” Within a couple of centuries after his arrival, thriving Indigenous civilizations found themselves in dire straits, if not completely laid to waste, causing untold suffering to the original inhabitants of this continent. The waves of European settlers who followed Columbus not only forcefully settled Indigenous lands by dispossessing Native peoples, but enforced a series of spiritual, cultural, social, political, and economic changes that had devastating effects on Indigenous lifeways. Yet, Indigeneity continues to not only thrive but challenges the ongoing disruption caused by settler-colonial occupation of lands and lives. This course, which is the first of a three-part sequence, takes Indigeneity and its repression by settler-colonialism as a foundational structure that inaugurated other projects of global consequence, including (anti)Black slavery and European colonization of the “Old World.” While Indigeneity is an international concept, our focus in this class will be on New World Indigeneity, especially North America. We will approach settler colonialism not as a thing of the past but as an ongoing incursion into the lives of Indigenous people, who continue to challenge it in new and innovative ways.

ETHN 2202 1619: Slavery and Its Afterlives (1-2 Credits)

The year 1619 marked the arrival of the first slave ship on the shores of what would come to be known as the United States of America. In August of that year, an English ship reached Point Comfort on the Virginia Peninsula where 20 Black people were sold for food and other essentials. This event inaugurated what would soon become a foundational institution of the New World—anti-Black chattel slavery—which undergirded all aspects of life in the U.S. Even though slavery had existed in many forms and in many places across the globe, what the U.S. model of slavery succeeded in doing was linking slavery with Blackness. This made slavery an inescapable part of Blackness, ensuring that whoever was born Black was also born into slavery. The celebrated theorist Toni Morrison has called slavery “America’s original sin.” Although slavery was formally abolished through the Emancipation Proclamation issued on Jan 1, 1863, it has continued to structure contemporary Black life, which the theorist Saidiya Hartman has termed the “aftermaths of slavery.” In other words, for critical Black theorists such as Hartman, slavery never ended but transformed into other structures that continue to render Black lives disposable. This class embraces Hartman’s understanding of slavery as an institution that has survived in (c)overt forms, as critical to understanding contemporary issues faced by Black people.

ETHN 2302 1848: Settler Colonialism to Settler Imperialism (1-2 Credits)

Description: 1848 marked the signing of the Treaty of Guadalope-Hidalgo between the U.S. and Mexico. Apart from ending the U.S.-Mexico war, the treaty forced Mexico to cede about half of its territory, including present-day states of Texas as well as California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, parts of Colorado, and many other states. This makes it one of the largest land grabs in human history. More importantly, this treaty facilitated the westward expansion of settlers, leading to new forms of racial antagonisms while escalating existing ones. This class approaches this moment as also marking the emergence of the U.S. as an imperialist superpower on the world stage as its war making, which was hitherto focused exclusively on Indigenous groups, would now be expanded to new terrains and increasingly outside the New World. We will also pay attention to how colonial expropriation and racialization of Indigenous and Black people would provide the grammar that the U.S. would use as it encountered racial others both within its newly established but unstable borders as well as across the world. In sum, this class will explore different antagonisms that comprise the "cacophony of empire" (Byrd, 2011) and how racialized groups have fought back as well as remained complicit in reinscribing the supremacy of the U.S.

ETHN 2701 Topics in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies (1-4 Credits)

ETHN 3004 Theories of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (4 Credits)

Students will be introduced to concepts and theories for research and writing in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES). Building on what students learned in the Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, this course aims to expose students to the key writings the formed the Critical Race Theory (CRT) movement, CRT’s interdisciplinary uses, the modern American controversies surrounding it, and introduce other critical theories of race and ethnicity. Prerequisite: ETHN 1004.

ETHN 3804 Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Capstone (4 Credits)

Students will learn how to conduct in-depth qualitative analyses for research and writing in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES). Building on what students learned in the Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Research Methods, and Theory, this course aims to enable students to produce their own empirical research. Various qualitative data analysis and research paper writing lessons will be covered throughout the quarter, and it is expected that students will produce a theoretically informed empirical paper centering on CRES topics. Prerequisites: ETHN 1004, ETHN 2004, and ETHN 3004.

ETHN 3991 Independent Study (1-10 Credits)