Classes in ethn

ETHN 1 Introduction to Ethnic Studies 3.0 units
Description: This course introduces students to the theoretical, methodological, and substantive foundations of Ethnic Studies. Through a re-examination of U.S. history, students will develop an understanding of the relationships between racial formation and the production of social and economic inequality. Readings will focus on the interrelated processes of settler-colonial land expropriation, the enslavement of Africans in the US, multiple forms of migration, and the political and economic exploitation of people of color as well as the historical ways in which racially oppressed groups have fought for self-determination, legal equality, and freedom of cultural expression. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which race and ethnicity have been historically co-constituted with other socially-constructed and intersectional identities, such as gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Define Ethnic Studies, its origins in the United States, and its evolution.
2. Analyze the development and dynamics of racialization and gendering as they have been impacted by law, science, economics, education, politics, and social justice movements.
3. Analyze specific structures, events, and processes, both oppressive and libratory, that have formatively contributed to racial identity formation within the U.S. context.


ETHN 2 Introduction to Chicanx Studies 3.0 units
Description: This course examines the origins, evolution, and current status of Chicanx studies. Utilizing historic, political, and economic frameworks, this course develops an understanding of the Chicanx experience as well as examines community activism and cultural praxis.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze the historical creation and liberatory practice of Chicano/a Studies as a political movement and interdisciplinary field of study.
2. Examine the ways in which historic, social, economic, and political forces have shaped the Chicano/a experience.
3. Analyze the historical creation and liberatory practice of Chicano/a Studies as an interdisciplinary political movement.


ETHN 2L Latinx Roots and Revolution 3.0 units
Description: This course emphasizes the formal, thematic, and cultural importance of Latinx literature. We will read novels, poetry, and short stories, among other media, by authors from a range of identities—including Mexican American, Central American, Cuban American, and others. We will explore literary movements, such as magical realism, and the cultural constructs—e.g. borderlands, gender and sexuality, internalized oppression, resisting racism—that shape the work of Latinx authors. Students will work collectively and individually to undertake writing projects that explore Latinx literature in terms of literary contributions, community empowerment, and connectedness to social justice movements. As listed as ENGL 2L.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Examine Latinx literature as a means to understand historic and contemporary issues of race, racism, and resistance.
2. Analyze Latinx literature within a critical framework.
3. Understand and analyze the historical, social, and cultural value of Latinx works of literature.


ETHN 2R Race, Power, and Resistance 3.0 units
Description: Students will examine race, racism, and resistance in the context of contemporary American ethnic literature: Black, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, mixed-race, and others. Students will seek to understand this literature using historical, post-colonial, feminist, and other types of literary criticism as well as critical race theory. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the sociological and historical contexts from which each of these texts emerged—particularly the ways in which ethnic communities have navigated their struggles with enslavement, genocide, violence, poverty, education, language, and family in the United States. Works of literature will be analyzed in the context of personal and community empowerment, intersectionality, and their contribution to the development of unique literary traditions. Also listed as ENGL 2R.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Examine American ethnic literature as a means to understand historic and contemporary issues of race, racism, and resistance.
2. Analyze American ethnic literature within a critical framework.
3. Understand and analyze the historical, social, and cultural value of American ethnic works of literature.


ETHN 3A Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 3.0 units
Description: The course explores how anthropologists study and compare human cultures. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the broad arc of human experience focusing on a set of central issues: how people around the world make their living (subsistence patterns); how they organize themselves socially, politically and economically; how they communicate; how they relate to each other through family and kinship ties; what they believe about the world (belief systems); how they express themselves creatively (expressive culture); how they make distinction among themselves such as through applying gender, racial and ethnic labels; how they have shaped and been shaped by social inequalities such as colonialism; and how they navigate culture change and processes of globalization that affect us all. Key concepts of power, social justice, equity, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, race, anti-racism, decolonization, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, kinship, ritual, belief systems, and symbolism will be covered. Ethnographic case studies highlight these similarities and differences, and introduce students to how anthropologists do their work, employ professional anthropological research ethics and apply their perspectives and skills to understand humans around the globe. Students will write a research paper based on original fieldwork in a local community. Also listed as ANTH 3.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Define the methods, theories, and perspectives used to study and understand human cultures.
2. Describe, compare, and analyze systems of power and practices shaped by the intersection of race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender, and sexuality in a range of cultures throughout the globe.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of anthropological concepts including social justice, equity, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, race, anti-racism, decolonization, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political organization, socioeconomic class, kinship, ritual, belief systems, and symbolism.
4. Design, conduct, and write a research paper based on ethnographic or Service Learning experience and research.
5. Apply anthropological theory to describe the histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, lived experiences, and/or social struggles of one or more of the following historically defined racialized groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Latinx Americans, and Asian Americans.


ETHN 3B Sociology of Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity 3.0 units
Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the basic sociological concepts and theories of race, ethnicity and cultural identity in U.S. society. Students will examine race, ethnicity and cultural identity as social constructs that permeate social structures and institutions, and how they change over time and space. Over the semester students will critically analyze the ways which race, ethnicity, class, and gender/sexuality continually shape people's lives and experiences. While the class focuses on U.S. societies, students will also critically compare and contrast race and ethnicity in other societies. Also listed as SOC 3.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain and evaluate various sociological theories on race and ethnicity.
2. Describe contemporary and past forms of racism, prejudice, and discrimination as well as sociological explanations for their causes and effects.
3. Describe and assess the history of relations among dominant and minority racial and immigrant groups in the United States.
4. Describe and evaluate the reasons for the prevailing social, economic, and political positions of the different racial and ethnic groups.


ETHN 4 Intercultural Communication 3.0 units
Description: This course will explore the dynamics of communication as it applies to people from different cultures. Course content focuses on the application of theory and research to intercultural communication contexts. Increasing the awareness and understanding of diversity, the perception process, culture, verbal and non-verbal communication and the obstacles that prevent one from becoming a competent intercultural communicator will be examined. Also listed as CMUN 4.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize and articulate how core values, worldview, and communication patterns shape cultural and individual identity.
2. Discuss the diverse ways of thinking, perceptions, and interpretations held by various cultural groups.
3. Identify how culture and context influence application of nonverbal and verbal communication practices.
4. Recognize barriers to effective intercultural competencies such as stereotyping, prejudice, and ethnocentrism.


ETHN 6 Introduction to World Music 3.0 units
Description: This course explores a broad and diverse survey of different non Western music cultures, helping students develop listening skills to identify, distinguish and appreciate the elements and richness of each culture's music. The course will cover a rich diversity of styles through informed listening, analysis and discernment of musical elements, form and repertoire. Music of various cultures will be explored, for example: India, China, Japan, the Middle East, Indonesia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Distinguish the elements of non-Western music and respective cultures
2. Identify the sounds produced by a variety of instruments considered native to particular cultures
3. Students learn to analyze and appreciate works of philosophical and cultural importance, as well as, gain a broader understanding of the human condition.
4. Apply theory to describe critical events in the histories, cultures and intellectual traditions, with special focus on the lived-experiences and social struggles of one or more of the following four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Latina/o Americans and/or Asian Americans, and emphasizing agency and group-affirmation
5. Critically discuss the intersection of race and ethnicity with other forms of difference affected by hierarchy and oppression, such as class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability and/or age.
6. Describe how struggle, resistance, social justice, solidarity and liberation as experienced by communities of color are relevant to current issues.


ETHN 10A Native American Culture 3.0 units
Description: This course surveys the experiences of Indigenous peoples of North American including American Indian Tribes, First Nations of Canada, and Indigenous communities of Mesoamerica. Key themes include colonization, decolonization, resistance, cultural syncretism, political sovereignty, cultural revitalization, and ecology. The course examines these communities and themes through the cross cultural, holistic perspective of anthropology and the interdisciplinary perspectives of critical race theory and ethnic studies. Also listed as ANTH 10.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Examine the origins and development of cultural, political, and economic patterns throughout Native North America.
2. Summarize the responses of Indigenous peoples of North America to European-American colonization.
3. Discuss the past and present dynamics of self-determination and decolonization throughout Native North America.
4. Summarize the contemporary cultural and political struggles of Indigenous communities in North America including cultural revitalization, federal acknowledgement, political self-determination, and environmental racism.


ETHN 10B African-American History 3.0 units
Description: This class examines how social, political, cultural, intellectual, and economic aspects of African-American life developed in the course of United States history. Students will explore the early effects of race-based ideology, and will consider the legacies of slavery and African-American economic underdevelopment. Students will also learn about the contributions of various African-American individuals and groups to the modern United States, and will use various indicators to assess the current state of the nation's ethnic relations. Also listed as HIST 10.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze and explain the changes in the lives of African-Americans that have and have not resulted from social, political, and economic change movements in the United States.
2. Explain the contributions of African-American individuals and groups to US history and society.
3. Summarize the contemporary social, cultural, and/or political struggles of Black and African American communities in the United States and the histroical forces that contributed to them.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships between power, race/ethnicity, class, and gender in many aspects of life, particularly as they relate the African American experience


ETHN 12 Mexican American Cultural History 3.0 units
Description: The Mexican American experience as influenced by society in the United States. Emphasis will be on the historical and contemporary contributions made by the Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and Mexican American. Emphasis will also be on the social, economic, and political milieu of the Mexican American within the context of the American society. This course has the option of a letter grade or pass/no pass. This course is also listed as HIST 12. ADVISORY: Eligible for English 1A.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Survey, examine, compare and evaluate major historical eras in Mexican American history.
2. Identify and define trends in Mexican American, Chicano, and Xicano social and political thought.
3. Critically assess theories appropriate to the discipline.
4. Appraise and critique historical and cultural literature.