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Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary, comparative concentration that examines the construction of race and ethnicity in social, cultural, historical, political, and economic contexts. Concentrators develop individual programs based on areas of focus in consultation with faculty advisors, drawing from courses in the humanities and social sciences. Typical areas of focus are social issues (such as inequality, education, or health), cultural production and the representation of racial groups, processes of racialization, the historical formation of transnational communities and of diaspora, and the history of particular ethnic or racial groups.

 

The Ethnic Studies concentration emphasizes the histories of diverse racial groups within and across the borders of the United States, including examining issues of diaspora, migration, social movements, and the political economies of social inequality and racial formation.  Concentrators strive for intellectual fluency in a range of critical approaches to race and ethnicity across disciplines, and demonstrate this fluency through the composition or creation of a significant piece of original research or creative work.

Requirements

In consultation with the Concentration Advisor, each concentrator develops an individualized program of study of 10 courses (or 12 courses for those completing an Honors Thesis). Five of these courses must be linked to an individual focus area formulated by the student.

Required courses:

  • ETHN 1000 “Introduction to Ethnic Studies”
  • Any three courses from the ETHN 1200 “Topics in Ethnic Studies” or ETHN 1750 “Advanced Topics in Ethnic Studies” sequence, or similar 1000-level electives listed under AMST (with approval from the concentration advisor).
  • Five additional courses that address the student’s focus area and prepare them for the capstone experience. These may be listed in AMST or ETHN, or in another department if linked to the student's focus area. (Outside courses require concentration advisor approval; a maximum of 3 courses outside of AMST/ETHN can count toward the concentration).
    • Up to two ETHN or AMST courses below the 1000-level may count toward the focus area (for instance, a first-year seminar and a sophomore seminar).
    • Up to one of the focus area courses may be a Department Independent Study Project (DISP), undertaken with an American Studies/Ethnic Studies faculty member and offered under an ETHN course number.
    • If you intend to pursue honors, one of the focus area courses should be the AMST 1800 Honors Seminar (taken during the junior year).
  • ETHN 1900 "Senior Seminar in Ethnic Studies". In this spring semester course, senior concentrators collectively reflect on their experience in the concentration and the current state of the field, while also designing/completing a senior capstone project (or completing the honors thesis, if pursuing honors).
  • Honors Thesis (optional): Concentrators hoping to pursue honors should take the joint AMST/ETHN Honors Seminar, AMST 1800, in the spring of their junior year . Students pursuing honors are also required to take two independent study courses (ETHN 1920) in their senior year in order to complete the honors thesis. These independent study courses raise the total number of required concentration courses to 12.

Honors:

Students who hope to pursue Honors are encouraged to take AMST 1800, the Honors Seminar, in the Spring of their Junior year, in preparation for submitting an Honors thesis proposal. Admission to Honors candidacy requires an academic record providing evidence of the student's ability to do Honors work. At least half of the student's grades in courses counted toward the concentration must be grades of A or "S with Distinction", and Honors proposals must include a recommendation form completed by a faculty member who has taught a class requiring a significant research paper. Students pursuing Honors are required to take two independent study courses in their senior year, in addition to the regular concentration requirements (for a total of 12 credits), in order to write their Honors thesis. Guidelines for completion and submission of the thesis are on the department website.