Critical Ethnic Studies
Director
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Ph.D. • English
Faculty
Tania Carrasquillo Hernández, Ph.D. • Global Languages and Cultural Studies
Sharon Bailey Glasco, Ph.D. • History
Jackson Miller, Ph.D. • Communication Arts
Rachel Norman, Ph.D. • English
Amy Orr, Ph.D. • Sociology
The interdisciplinary Critical Ethnic Studies minor fosters the intellectual development of students, staff and faculty and the entire Linfield community by promoting academic and community-based work focused on the intersections of social, cultural, national and the historical forces that have shaped racial and cultural identities both nationally and globally. In this interdisciplinary field of study, we will seek to understand the ways in which societies are culturally and institutionally constituted by ideas of race, ethnicity, gender, migrations, sexuality, disability, mental health, class, and nation. The minor provides an innovative, multidisciplinary paradigm that employs both US based and global models (Western and non-Western), relational, performative and intersectional methods for producing knowledge about power and inequality, including systems of knowledge that have emerged from racialized and indigenous communities. In using race, ethnicity, nation, citizenships and indigeneity as ideological frameworks, Critical Ethnic Studies aims to scrutinize cultures of power and domination as well as highlight and conceptualize struggles for liberation, self-determination, lines of community building and solidarity.
The minor offers a strong liberal arts education for students considering careers in education and education policy, law, medicine, public health, nursing, social work, counseling, journalism, business, city planning, politics, psychology, international relations, creative writing, theater and the arts.
The Pacific Northwest has seen an influx of migrants and refugees from México, East Africa, Syria and other parts of the world and Linfield can tap more into its mission of educating global citizens in a more direct, meaningful fashion by exposing students to the forces and complexities of historical and contemporary race relations as a result of wars, genocide and the refugee crisis. In order to recognize the complex aspects of ethnic identity and how it intersects with gender, sexuality, class and nation, this minor will address migration, civil rights, educational inequality, economic inequity, identity and empowerment, immigration, race, gender and intersectionality, histories of labor and employment, social/civil rights movement both in a national and a global context.
Courses
CRES 200 INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL ETHNIC STUDIES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE (4 credits)
This introductory course is a gateway course required for all "Critical Ethnic Studies" minors and will draw upon various interdisciplinary approaches and critical debates to understand the constructions and intersections of race and ethnicity both within the United States and globally. The class will discuss both historical and contemporary debates, theoretical frameworks and various interdisciplinary methodological approaches within Ethnic Studies and Transnational Ethnic Studies to instill an understanding of the discipline of "Critical Ethnic Studies."
Prerequisites: INQS 125.
Typically offered: Spring Semester, Annually
(GLOBAL PLURALISM, U.S. PLURALISM)