Understanding Social Identities

Catalog description

This course broadly explores definitions of the self and how different social identities develop, change, and overlap with each other across the lifespan. Using both theory and a large body of empirical research, we investigate how our own sense of self as well as our perceptions of other people s identities guide behavior. Guiding questions such as “what does identity mean?” and “how is identity legible?” and “how are national identities formed?” lead to more advanced explorations into the social and cultural influences, uses and ramifications of identities, their performance and their representation. Students explore from a variety of disciplinary perspectives the complex relationships between the formation of group and individual identities and representations of identity within and across categories such as race, class, gender, nation, dis/ability, citizenship, and sexuality in the context of the workplace. Prerequisite: None.