The teaching of courses that meet the Race and Ethnicity skills requirement is central to the mission of our department. Our extraordinary, and diverse, faculty takes these courses very seriously. We offer an exciting range of Race and Ethnicity options centered on engaging and attractive topics within the field of American Studies and Ethnic Studies. Our courses offer more than content related to race and ethnicity. They offer tools for analysis that students can apply to other academic work and to their own experiences, cultural choices, and identities. Tools for thinking about Race and Ethnicity are essential for participation in a diverse and globalized workforce. But in our view, successful Race and Ethnicity courses also help students find their way to thoughtful citizenship in a society (and on a campus) where inequalities, privileges, and conflicts organized around race and ethnicity remain fundamental challenges to democratic values and educational equity. Because race and ethnicity remain important fault-lines in contemporary society, these topics are, and should be, unsettling. To ensure that student engagement with difficult material is intellectually productive, our courses are constructed with careful attention to best practices in setting up diverse and inclusive classrooms, discussing highly charged issues, and fostering intergroup dialogue.
