Introduction to Borderlands and Ethnic Studies

Catalog description

The field of Ethnic Studies is about 1) critical knowing and 2) unapologetic imagining and creation of a better, more just world. This course explores the roots, logics, and administrations of racism within the U.S. context, locally along the border, and framed within a larger global and historical context. The past few decades have borne witness to increasing global diversity and cross- border migrations, which has led many in the U.S. to imagine the nation as “post-racial.” Simultaneously, increasing clashes that can only be described as “racist” have led people to wonder about the dark racist underpinnings of a society that believes it has achieved the goals put forth by the distinct and intersecting Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.Perhaps now, more than any other time in history, there is earnest desire to talk about race and racism and unpack these constructs/activities/outcomes. This course is designed to inform us about how colonization, racism, and hegemony function. Secondly, it is designed for self and collective exploration of these somewhat broad and abstract concepts in an applied manner. Finally, it is designed for us to arrive at a shared understanding of the decolonial turn, or a re-humanization imperative. How do we understand, apply, and heal as these activities each relate to coloniality of power