Course Descriptions
ETHN 103 Asian American Studies (3 units)
This course examines how US institutions ideologically constructed the category of Asian-ness and materially engaged with “Asian” peoples within the United States and its territories. Ethnic Studies theory will be applied to describe critical events in Asian American histories, cultures, and intellectual traditions including an examination of how "Asian" communities interact with each other and other racialized/ethnicized communities. This includes a focus on topics ranging from self-determination to imperialism in a move toward building a just and equitable society.
ETHN 105 African American History and Culture (3 units)
This is a survey of the history of African Americans from their origins in Africa to the present, with special emphasis on their contributions to California's social, political and economic institutions. It examines the political, economic, social, and cultural factors as well as interactions between African Americans and the larger society while analyzing the intersection of race and racism.
ETHN 107 Introduction to Native American Studies (3 units)
This course provides an introduction to the study of Native American histories, experiences, intellectual traditions, and forms of artistic expression. Students engage with texts that confront the structural genocide underlying the construction of the U.S. settler state, and explore Native practices of resistance, resilience, and regeneration. Course materials include fiction, poetry, spoken word, and other creative texts, as well as historical and archival studies.
ETHN 108 Rethinking Race, Gender, and Nation (3 units)
This course introduces students to the theoretical, methodological, and substantive foundations of Ethnic Studies. Through a re-examination of U.S. history, students develop an understanding of the relationships between racial formation and the production of social and economic inequality. Readings focus on the interrelated processes of settler-colonial land expropriation, chattel slavery, multiple forms of migration, overseas imperial expansion, inter- and intra-national circulations of economic value, and the historical development of the U.S. settler legal regime. Particular attention is given to the ways in which race and ethnicity have been historically co-constituted with other socially-constructed identities, such as gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship.
ETHN 109 Borders and Crossings (3 units)
This introductory Ethnic Studies course examines how U.S. processes of racial formation and gendering are related to multiple transnational circulations – of commodities, bodies, labor, capital, knowledge, and culture. We interrogate the material and ideological work of borders – particularly nation-state borders, but also the borders and boundaries of racial and ethnic categories, gendered and sexualized identities, languages, forms of labor, and disciplinary categories of knowledge. Also explored are the many ways in which such borders are variously resisted, contested, transgressed, transcended, and transformed over time.
ETHN 265 Evolution of Hip Hop Culture: A Socio-Economic and Political Perspective (3 units)
This course traces the evolution of Hip Hop from its African roots through the diaspora as a cultural form of expression by examining music, dancing, spoken word, philosophy, and lifestyles. Also, Hip Hop is analyzed from social, economic, and political perspectives. It is explored as a product of the African American struggle as reflected in music, poetry, lyrics, dance, artists, and major issues associated with Hip Hop.
ETHN 288 African-American Cinema (3 units)
This course explores the rich and diverse history of African American filmmaking. Focusing on films written and/or directed by African Americans, this seminar traces the history of filmmaking from the silent era to the present day. In exploring Black cultural production and creative expression, students consider the ways in which film is used as a medium of protest, resistance, and cultural affirmation. We look at films through the critical lenses of Ethnic Studies theory, race and representation in American cinema while locating our analysis within larger frameworks of Hollywood’s representation of African Americans and various cultural and social movements within local and global contexts.