Course Description

The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the academic field of Ethnic Studies, and the interdisciplinary questions it poses about the way that race, ethnicity and racism structure our world across a range of time and places. Our course spans and reflects a range of themes and topics, including the historical formation of racial categories and the emergence of “whiteness,” issues of power and privilege, the connection between race, class, gender and sexuality, racial colorblindness, immigration and imperialism, race and education, and popular culture and representation.  

We will collectively and collaboratively examine the historical, social, political and structural forces that affect the construction, assimilation, colonization, inclusion and exclusion of these concepts.  No introductory course can comprehensively examine all of these topics, or claim to represent all prevailing perspectives. Instead, CES 101 surveys a variety of issues, topics and debates to introduce you to this field and encourage future research and inquiry during your college career and beyond.  Through lectures, readings, and multimedia, this course will develop students understanding how articulations of power plays a key role in the formation of difference and inequality as they exist today; as well as resistance and alternatives to such realities.