Critical Social Inquiry 0162 - U.S. Ethnic Studies

The field of U.S. Ethnic studies underscores how the Unites States was founded upon intersectional systems of injustice. From its inauguration, Ethnic Studies sought to disrupt the fundamental principles that inform higher education. The purpose of this course is to gain an interdisciplinary and intersectional understanding of the field of Ethnic studies, comprehend some of the historical perspectives that inform it's intellectual formation, and generate a more complicated frame of reference of some ongoing central concepts and processes, like settler colonialism, imperialism, slavery, genocide, racial and sexual classification systems, systemic racism, police brutality, labor importation, gender exploitation and inequality, the prison industrial complex, redlining, and white privilege, among others. We will investigate how Ethnic Studies, as both a field of inquiry and a social movement, is entwined with past and current racial and social justice movements and activism, such as Black Lives Matter, the Dakota Access Pipe Line protest, etc.

Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.