In 2010, the College of Ethnic Studies formally established a comparative program: Race and Resistance Studies (RRS) was started as an interdisciplinary program program and recently became a full-fledged department, with four minors: QTES (Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies), CPIOS (Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies), AMED (Arab & Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies), and the RRS Minor. Coursework focuses upon processes of racialization — how race-related discourses/practices create and perpetuate social problems — across diverse ethnic and racialized communities. The core faculty in RRS provides students with tools for examining how institutions oppress communities of color. Students explore the creative and complex ways in which communities of color express multiple forms of resistance. In doing so, we further explore how domestic issues are shaped by transnational processes and how oppression and resistance are shaped by the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality.
Degree Options
Race and Resistance Studies (RRS) examines both the race-related processes that underlie many social problems and the multiple forms of resistance and struggle aimed at achieving racial social justice. Our analytical approach is comparative, relational, interdisciplinary, and intersectional. The program will 1) provide majors with a solid understanding of key theories and approaches through a set of core courses required of all students, 2) provide all students with an overview of key areas of concern, including histories of resistance, gender issues, transnational issues, and cultural production, 3) Allow students to choose electives emphasizing particular areas of interest, and 4) develop students' abilities to work in a community organizations.
Minor in Race and Resistance Studies
The Race and Resistance Studies minor is an interdisciplinary program that provides undergraduate students with an approach to social justice to study race as a politically produced and contested process that begins with institutions, movements, and social problems, to examine racialized communities. The curriculum examines how race, gender, and class are co-constitutive factors of identity; how different groups are racialized in relation to one another; how social justice movements cohere and fall apart; and how groups have formed their own identities. The Race and Resistance Studies minor provides students with non-traditional, multi-ethnic, and comparative perspectives on national and transnational experiences of people of color within the U.S.
Minor in Arab & Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies
The Minor in Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) is a multidisciplinary program that provides undergraduate students with a justice-centered analysis in which gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, citizenship, age, ability, and other structural inequalities are integral to the study of Arab and Muslim communities, and addresses the context in which these groups have existed and continue to develop in the current socio-political climate.
Minor in Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies
Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies (CPIOS) ensures honoring Oceanic peoples, experiences, and stories throughout the diaspora — and to privilege narratives that are often forgotten and placed in the margins. Courses utilize indigenous epistemologies and methodologies to the study of Native Pacific Islander communities in diaspora. Themes include racialization, ethnicity, cultural formations, community health, colonization, immigration and sexual identities.
Minor in Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies
The Minor in Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies draw from the expertise of our faculty and to address the demand of our current students, our alumni and our future students. We see this minor as preparing students for post-graduate study, and for work in a variety of fields, including health care, social work, education, the private sector and the non-profit sector.