Introduction to Race, Ethnic and Indigenous Studies

Catalog description

The development of social systems and power structures determined by the process of racialization is a quintessential characteristic of the United States since its founding. Race and racism, as embedded in a central logic framing the U.S. Constitution, have defined how equity/inequity and justice/injustice have been indelibly woven into the social, political and economic fabrics of the United States. Given this historical foundation, and in light of more recent shifts in conceptions of race, ethnicity and Indigeneity resulting from globalization, students 1) examine how categories of identification (race, ethnicity, indigeneity, class, gender, sexuality, nation, etc.) have been formulated in the United States; 2) consider the social, political, and cultural consequences of these formulations; 3) explore how these intersectional formulations contribute to transnational conceptualizations of race and racism, and 4) develop a foundational understanding of and working vocabulary in critical race, ethnic and Indigenous studies in preparation for further studies.