Chairperson: Shalon Parker
The program offers one minor:
Minor in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
The Critical Race and Ethnic Studies program (CRES) is an interdisciplinary academic home for the study of race and ethnicity. In this program students learn about the complex interplay of race and ethnicity vis-a-vis gender, class, sexuality, and other social dimensions that shape the diverse experiences of humans over time. Students achieve this understanding by studying (1) the development of unique cultures among marginalized racial and ethnic groups and (2) the power relations which produce marginalization and injustice on the basis of race and ethnicity, among other intersecting categories of difference. As a reflection of the fifty-year intellectual tradition of ethnic studies, 91Թ's CRES program is both student-driven and student centered. Thus, it remains in dialogue with student movements for social and racial justice in the U.S. and transnationally. This reciprocal relationship provides students with the historical and academic grounding necessary to work toward justice, but also serves to re-invigorate the program with new knowledge that emerges from social justice movements.
The minor is open to all 91Թ undergraduate students, and students considering a minor in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies are encouraged to enroll in the required introductory course, CRES 101.
Courses fulfilling elective requirements will be approved by the Department Chair.
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Minor: 21 credits
| Lower Division | |
| CRES 101 Introduction to Race and Ethnic Studies | 3 credits |
| One of the following two courses: | 3 credits |
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CRES 201 Race and Pop Culture
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CRES 202 Racing Space and Place
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| Upper Division | |
| One of the following two courses: | 3 credits |
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CRES 301 Intersectionality and Race
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CRES 302 Race, Resistance, and Resilience
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| CRES elective (course of choice, any level) | 3 credits |
| Electives (can come from CRES or be Accepted Electives* from other departments) | 6 credits |
| CRES 499 Symposium | 3 credits |
Lower Division
This course will introduce students to key theories and debates within the field of race and ethnic studies. Students will analyze definitions of race and ethnicity, both inside and outside of the United States; cultural practices of resistance; various theories central to race and ethnic studies; the intersection of race with other forms of difference such as gender, class, and sexuality; and the connections between social justice and community engagement in ethnic studies. Students will read a variety of academic and cultural texts which illustrate the interdisciplinary scope in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. Students will explore the course topics and issues through readings, discussions, lectures, films, short stories, and music.
Examines U.S. history by centering Pacific Islander/Americans and Asian Americans. Provides an introduction to immigration, community-formation, colonization, racialization, labor, legal restrictions, activism, and justice movements.
Equivalent:
HIST 106 - OK if taken since Fall 2024
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces new 91Թ students to the University, the Core Curriculum, and 91Թ’s Jesuit mission and heritage. While the seminars will be taught by faculty with expertise in particular disciplines, topics will be addressed in a way that illustrates approaches and methods of different academic disciplines. The seminar format of the course highlights the participatory character of university life, emphasizing that learning is an active, collegial process.
This course will focus on the historical and contemporary popular culture representations of race in the United States. In particular, we will examine stereotypes, archetypes, and caricatures of People of Color in the U.S., in order to better understand the historical roots of these images as well as their pervasiveness in contemporary representation. We will also examine the impact of these representations, discussing how stereotypes and archetypes both shape and reflect structural inequalities.
This course will examine the historical and contemporary relationship among race, ethnicity, power, and space in the U.S. We will explore issues such as segregation, sub/urban planning, housing, imperialism, immigration, policing and incarceration, and others in order to better understand how race, racism, and discrimination shape the physical layout of the nation-state and the lived experiences of People of Color.
This course is an introduction to U.S. Latina/o/x Studies and provides an understanding of the trajectory of the field of U.S. Latina/o/x Studies as a distinct academic discipline often existing alongside or within the broader field of Ethnic Studies. This course centers conversations of identity formation, cultural ideologies, social movements and organizing, the development of "Latina/o/x" as a deeply complex and often problematic ethnoracial category, literature and film, and other aspects of Latina/o/x Studies.
Introduction to Asian American Studies Asian American grounds its examination of "Asian American" from interdisciplinary scholarship in the field taking seriously the material impacts of white supremacy, settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and US imperialism vis-à-vis the everyday lives of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans. The course introduces the political formation of Asian American as a bridge to understand race, war, U.S. imperialism, gender, sexuality, nation, racial capitalism, memory, collective healing, grassroots organizing, labor, and resistance. Analyzing the racialization of Asian Americans, its tethering to other groups and each moment's historically specific contextual holds, the course pursues an intellectual, transnational, and feminist inquiry into the meaning of rights, solidarity, and justice reckoning with today's iteration of anti-Asian violence while providing a general overview of key works, theories, and practices emergent in the field.
Introduces students to the variety of African American religions that developed in the Americas during and after the Atlantic slave trade up to today. Within various forms of Christianity, Islam, and even Hip Hop, we will examine the interplay between religion, race, colonialism, and self determination. Offered every other semester.
Equivalent:
RELI 252 - OK if taken since Fall 2024
Explores material of timely, special, or unusual interest not contained in the regular course offerings.
Upper Division
Framed through the lens of intersectionality, or what key theorist Kimberle Crenshaw describes as “a heuristic term to focus attention on the vexed dynamics of difference and the solidarities of sameness in the context of antidiscrimination and social movement politics,” this course examines the impact of Intersectionality Theory as a major framework in the field of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. While Intersectionality Theory and its theoretical and practical antecedents are used in a variety of disciplines, it has particular centrality in CRES and the intellectual and social movements that led to the development of this field. Furthermore, Intersectionality has shaped the theoretical and methodological foci of CRES, producing both
pedagogy and scholarship that centralizes a critical, multi-axis approach to racial inequity.
This course will examine the dual roles of resistance and resilience in historical and contemporary struggles for social change and social justice centered around race and racial inequity. Throughout the semester, we will focus on understanding, comparing, and contrasting core ideological frameworks present in social justice organizing to interpret their strengths, weaknesses and overall impact on achieving racial equity and justice. We will also consider the tactics used in various movements, again considering their utility and impact as well as how they have been replicated and modified. Finally, we will consider the possibilities of methods of resistance that did not necessarily arise as part of a social movement, but contributed to the well-being and survival of individuals and communities of Color.
This course will examine Latina/o/x identity, experience, history, and cultural productions as they intersect with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender non-conforming, and queer identities. In this course, we will explore how race/ethnicity, immigration experiences, and cultural identity shape queerness and vice versa. Using an intersectional framework, we will also consider how queer Latinas/os/xs have been elided in queer histories of the United States, as well as how their active presence in shaping these movements.
Whose children are children? Who is a parent? Whose culture is worth reproducing? Who should be the “next generation?” This course examines the
racialization of (re)production, parenting, and family-building with a focus on social, political, and economic ideologies and histories of racism, settler colonialism, and U.S. imperialism. We examine (re)production in capitalist frameworks where bodies of color are laboring bodies whose (re)productive capabilities (re)produce ideologies and structures of power, to their detriment. Furthermore, we consider how the (re)production of racially and ethnically marginalized communities (birthing; caring for and teaching children; community-building) is impacted by inequities in power, privilege, race, and gender that pathologize and limit the (re)productive decisions, choices, and experiences of families and communities of color.
Using a critical race and ethnic studies framework, this course takes a critical approach to the study of sexualities and race by asking us to challenge our assumptions and everyday knowledges about identities, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. The readings will give you an understanding and vocabulary of queer theory with a specific focus on queer of color theories as theorized by critical race scholars or scholars using a critical race framework.
Monsters retain prominence across decades in popular culture. In this class we will explore what the figure of the monster can tell us about the cultural context in which it emerges, particularly in regards to race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality. We will explore monsters literally as well as
symbolically, as we work toward critical readings strategies to engage popular culture from a critical race and ethnic studies perspective.
Using a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies framework his course explores the relationship between feminisms, hip-hop culture, and rap by centering the experiences of women in hip-hop along with feminist critiques of rap and hip-hop culture. We will begin by theorizing hip-hop feminism, and
then focus on particular artists to consider the specific critiques they offer around race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and size.
Selected topics in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.
To be determined by the faculty.
The Core Integration Seminar (CIS) engages the Year Four Question: “Imagining the possible: What is our role in the world"? by offering students a culminating seminar experience in which students integrate the principles of Jesuit education, prior components of the Core, and their disciplinary expertise. Each section of the course will focus on a problem or issue raised by the contemporary world that encourages integration, collaboration, and problem solving. The topic for each section of the course will be proposed and developed by each faculty member in a way that clearly connects to the Jesuit Mission, to multiple disciplinary perspectives, and to our students’ future role in the world. The capstone course in the critical race and ethnic studies program provides an opportunity for a special kind of faculty and student conversation. Responsibility for organizing and structuring this course will rotate among CRES faculty. Topics will vary. Regardless of the text or topics, the goal will be to create a conversation in which students assume significant responsibilities. All students are expected to complete a major research project using the concepts and perspectives of CRES scholarship, and to present their work to the class and faculty evaluators. Spring.
To be determined by faculty.
Professional experience in a related field. Students must take the initiative to contact an agency or business and find a faculty member willing to supervise the internship. Fall, Spring, and Summer.
This capstone course in the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies program provides an opportunity for a special kind of faculty and student conversation. Responsibility for organizing and structuring this course will rotate among CRES faculty. Topics will vary. Regardless of the text or topics, the goal will be to create a conversation in which students assume significant responsibilities. All students are expected to complete a major research project using the concepts and perspectives of CRES scholarship, and to present their work to the class and faculty evaluators. Spring.
Prerequisite:
CRES 101 Minimum Grade: D
In addition to their major and minor areas of study, all undergraduate students follow a common program designed to complete their education in those areas that the University considers essential for a Catholic, Jesuit, liberal, and humanistic education. The University Core Curriculum consists of forty-five credits of course work, with additional designation requirements that can be met through core, major, or elective courses.
The University Core Curriculum is a four-year program, organized around one overarching question, which is progressively addressed through yearly themes and questions. Hence, core courses are best taken within the year for which they are designated. First year core courses encourage intellectual engagement and provide a broad foundation of fundamental skills. Second and third year courses examine central issues and questions in philosophy and religious studies. The fourth year course, the Core Integration Seminar, offers a culminating core experience. Taken at any time throughout the four years, broadening courses intersect with the core themes and extend students’ appreciation for the humanities, arts, and social and behavioral sciences. Finally, the designation requirements (writing enriched, global studies, and social justice) reflect important values and reinforce students’ knowledge and competencies.
Overarching Core Question: As students of a Catholic, Jesuit, and 91Թ, how do we educate ourselves to become women and men for a more just and humane global community?
Year 1 Theme and Question: Understanding and Creating: How do we pursue knowledge and cultivate understanding?
- The First-Year Seminar (DEPT 193, 3 credits): The First-Year Seminar (FYS), taken in the fall or spring of the first year, is designed to promote an intellectual shift in students as they transition to college academic life. Each small seminar is organized around an engaging topic, which students explore from multiple perspectives. The FYS is offered by many departments across the University (click for list of FYS courses).
- Writing (ENGL 101, 3 credits) and Reasoning (PHIL 101, 3 credits): The Writing and Reasoning courses are designed to help students develop the foundational skills of critical reading, thinking, analysis, and writing. They may be taken as linked sections. Writing (ENGL 101) carries one of the three required writing-enriched designations (see below).
- Communication & Speech (COMM 100, 3 credits): This course introduces students to interpersonal and small group communication and requires the application of critical thinking, reasoning, and research skills necessary to organize, write, and present several speeches.
- Scientific Inquiry (BIOL 104/104L, CHEM 104/104L, or PHYS 104/104L, 3 credits): This course explores the scientific process in the natural world through evidence-based logic and includes significant laboratory experience. Students pursuing majors that require science courses will satisfy this requirement through their major.
- Mathematics (above Math 100, 3 credits): Mathematics courses promote thinking according to the modes of the discipline—abstractly, symbolically, logically, and computationally. One course in mathematics, above Math 100, including any math course required for a major or minor, will fulfill this requirement. MATH 100 (College Algebra) and courses without the MATH prefix do not fulfill this requirement.
Year 2 Theme and Question: Being and Becoming: Who are we and what does it mean to be human?
- Philosophy of Human Nature (PHIL 201, 3 credits): This course provides students with a philosophical study of key figures, theories, and intellectual traditions that contribute to understanding the human condition; the meaning and dignity of human life; and the human relationship to ultimate reality.
- Christianity and Catholic Traditions (RELI, 3 credits). Religious Studies core courses approved for this requirement explore diverse topics including Christian scriptures, history, theology, and practices as well as major contributions from the Catholic intellectual and theological traditions (click for a list of approved courses) .
Year 3 Theme and Question: Caring and Doing: What principles characterize a well lived life?
- Ethics (PHIL 301 or RELI, 3 credits): The Ethics courses are designed to help students develop their moral imagination by exploring and explaining the reasons humans should care about the needs and interests of others. This requirement is satisfied by an approved ethics course in either Philosophy (PHIL 301) or Religious Studies (click for a list of approved courses).
- World/Comparative Religion (RELI, 3 credits): Religious Studies courses approved for this core requirement draw attention to the diversity that exists within and among traditions and encourage students to bring critical, analytical thinking to bear on the traditions and questions considered. These courses carries one of the required two global-studies designations (see below) (click for a list of approved courses).
Year 4 Theme and Question: Imagining the Possible: What is our role in the world?”
- Core Integration Seminar (DEPT 432, 3 credits). The Core Integration Seminar (CIS) offers students a culminating core experience in which they integrate the principles of Jesuit education, prior components of the core, and their disciplinary expertise. Some CIS courses may also count toward a student’s major or minor. The CIS is offered by several departments across the University (click for list of CIS courses).
The Broadening Courses
- Fine Arts & Design (VART, MUSC, THEA, 3 credits): Arts courses explore multiple ways the human experience can be expressed through creativity, including across different cultures and societies. One approved course in fine arts, music, theatre, or dance will fulfill this requirement (click for a list of approved courses).
- History (HIST, 3 credits): History courses are intended to develop students’ awareness of the historical context of both the individual and the collective human experience. One course in History (HIST 101, HIST 102, HIST 112, HIST 201, HIST 202) will fulfill this requirement.
- Literature (3 credits): Literature courses foster reflection on how literature engages with a range of human experience. One approved course in Literature (offered by English, Classics, or Modern Languages) will fulfill this requirement (click for a list of approved courses).
- Social & Behavioral Sciences (3 credits): Courses in the social and behavioral sciences engage students in studying human behavior, social systems, and social issues. One approved course offered by Criminal Justice, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, or Women and Gender Studies will fulfill this requirement (click for a list of approved courses).
The Designations
Designations are embedded within already existing core, major, minor, and elective courses. Students are encouraged to meet designation requirements within elective courses as their schedule allows; however, with careful planning students should be able to complete most of the designation requirements within other core, major, or minor courses.
- Writing Enriched (WE; 3 courses meeting this designation): Courses carrying the WE designation are designed to promote the humanistic and Jesuit pedagogical ideal of clear, effective communication. In addition to the required core course, Writing (ENGL 101), which carries one of the WE designations, students must take two other WE-designated courses (click for a list of approved courses).
- Global-Studies (GS; 2 courses meeting this designation): Courses carrying the GS designation are designed to challenge students to perceive and understand human diversity by exploring diversity within a context of constantly changing global systems. In addition to the required core course, World/Comparative Religion (RELI 300-level), which carries one of the GS designations, students must take one other GS-designated course (click for a list of approved courses).
- Social-Justice (SJ; 1 course meeting this designation): Courses carrying the SJ designation are designed to introduce students to one or more social justice concerns. Students must take one course that meets the SJ designation (click for a list of approved courses).
Major-specific adaptations to the University Core Curriculum
All 91Թ students, regardless of their major, will complete the University Core Curriculum requirements. However some 91Թ students will satisfy certain core requirements through major-specific programs or courses. Any major-specific adaptations to the core are described with the requirements for the majors to which they apply.