Index of Courses

The relationship between ethnic communities (specifically, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and/or Latino Americans) and place in the United States. (African American includes Black Americans. Also, Latina and Latino American includes the Chicana/Chicano, Chicanx, and Latinx communities.) Interdisciplinary theories and practices of ethnic studies and place. Intersectional themes include one or more of the following: place-based policies, systemic racism, racial segregation, gentrification, immigration, community activism, environmental and economic justice, immigration, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights.

Examine how race and ethnicity has been constructed in the US, and the impact of racial stigma and discrimination in the retail marketplace as it relates to consumer behavior. Consumer processes and motives will be investigated with reference to the intersection of race and ethnicity with other demographic and behavioral characteristics - with a focus on African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and Latino Americans. Topics will include social constructs of race, racism in the consumer market, marketplace discrimination, consumer inequality, stereotyping, sustainability, and consumer rights. Lecture/discussion, case studies, analysis of datasets, and a student project related to race and consumerism in America.

A historical overview of the experiences of Latina and Latino Americans in the United States. Grounded in ethnic studies, we study key historical moments in the formation of the United States, covering political, economic, social and geographical shifts and continuities. Covers Latina and Latino roots in the Americas. Topics include the conquest and colonization of the Americas (such as the U.S.-Mexico War), education, their racial and labor experiences, gender roles and family formations, migration and urban settlements, political movements, citizenship, contributions in the arts, literature, and sports, and their community and identity formations.

A historical discussion of various Asian American historical experiences. Through an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, race, ethnicity, gender, colonialism, nationalism will be placed at the center of analysis. Western and imperialist expansion and domination in Asia, Asian immigration pattern, labor, family, community, and social life of Asian immigrants and their descendants in American society will be addressed.

Examination of racialization and erasure of the histories of Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and/or Latina and Latino Americans communities in the US with regard to food and agriculture. A foundational understanding of the history of oppression of minorities and policies that have kept these groups marginalized within the Agriculture industry will be investigated. Current food justice movements that aim to solve long withstanding and historical problems within society will also be studied.

Minority communities, citizenship, political values, attitudes, behaviors, and policy issues and representation in the United States. Emphasis on the experience of Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and/or Latina and Latino Americans, along with the overall immigrant experience in the US.

Interdisciplinary study of Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities and food, nutrition, and health inequities in the United States. Foundational theoretical concepts of ethnic studies and nutrition such as racism, colonialism, immigration, eurocentrism, social determinants of health, food and health disparities, acculturation, and health equity are examined.

Examines the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino Americans in the United States on stage and screen. Emphasizes narratives of lived experience, history, social struggle, and intersectional identities as a framework to explore how Theatre and Film may be forms of resistance and protest, work toward social and racial justice, anti-racism, and group affirmation. Analyze, critique and discuss the context, aesthetics and styles of theatre and filmed performances. Topics will include history, immigrant experiences and immigration policy, gender, sexuality, settler-colonialism, cultural appropriation, language, self-determination and empowerment.

Investigates the intersection of ethnic studies and landscape architecture by exploring the relationship between the Asian American community and place in the United States. Through the lens of the Japanese American experience in California since the late 19th century, this course will examine topics that include immigration patterns, socio-economic and political factors shaping US immigration policies, racism and its connection to labor and employment practices with focus on landscape and agriculture, World War II internment, post-war era ethnic resilience, the role of environmental influences in individual well-being, and evaluation of cultural identity in the Asian American community. Field trips are required.

Explores racial formations in a U.S. context and how race has shaped aspects of American digital culture; issues of ethnic identities and racial inequalities in digital media; how race and ethnicity are embodied in and shaped by digital technologies; how digital media serves to complicate, change, erase, and/or recreate ethnic and racial boundaries; possibilities for alternative identities, communities, and cultures that digital technology offers; digital literacy and Gen Z activism.

Latina/o Sociology is the systematic inquiry into the social lives of Latina and Latino Americans in the U.S. This course examines the ways in which Latina and Latino American communities have developed and the social, political, and economic structures that have influenced them. The course analyzes the ways in which hierarchical power relations and resistance to domination by Latina and Latino Americans have shaped their life chances across time and space in the U.S. and along the U.S.-Mexico border region.