Santa Clara University

Course Description

Lower-Division Courses

ETHN 05 - Introduction to the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the United States (REQUIRED FOR NEW MINORS)

This course focuses on immigration and intercultural race relations for the major cultures of color in the United States: African American, Asian American, Latina/o, and Native American. We will discuss each group historically in relationship to each other and the dominant culture. Through critical readings, class discussion, and film, students will have opportunities to develop a solid intercultural foundation to understanding race and cultural diversity in United States. In addition, this course creates a basis for classes offered by all faculty in the Ethnic Studies Program particularly the introductory level courses. The course also serves as an introduction to the minor in the Ethinc Studies Program. (4 units)

ETHN 10 - Introduction to Native American Studies

A multidisciplinary course addressing key issues regarding identity and definition among indigenous peoples in the United States. How members of each group view themselves; how they are defined by others; how interactions between the different cultures influence one another. (4 units)

ETHN 20 - Introduction to Chicana/Chicano Studies

A survey course in Chicana/Chicano studies addressing key issues in Chicana/o communities in the United States. Focuses on such issues as immigration, culture, family, family and kinship, identity, gender roles, religion, education, politics, and labor force participation. (4 units)

ETHN 30 - Introduction to African American Studies

In this course, we will engage major debates about the history, politics and cultures of communities of African descent living in the United States.  As the course unfolds, we will examine texts at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary scholarship in African American Studies in order to explore the key themes of origins, power, community, identity and expression that are central to understanding race-related issues.  In addition, we will create innovative research projects that help us develop our own positions about the ideology of race, the dynamics of group consciousness as well as the significance of collective action, self-determination and aesthetics to the African American experience. (4 units)

ETHN 31 - Introduction to African American Art

This course investigates the history and aesthetics of African American Art with an emphasis on the politics of cultural representation. Students will use course readings and class discussions as the primary means of investigating the ideas discussed. (4 units)
- Also listed as ARTH 46.

ETHN 40 - Introduction to Asian American Studies

Multidisciplinary survey of Asian Americans. Asian cultural heritage, immigration, and the formation of Asian American communities. World views and values, religious beliefs, family and kinship, language. Contemporary community issues of identity, sex roles, stereotyping, employment, and education. (4 units)

ETHN 50 - Introduction to Filipino American Studies

Course will address mainstream representations of the Filipino American community. Students will read 20th-century works, written by and about Filipino Americans, with an emphasis on four relevant themes: the legacy of Spanish Colonialism and American Imperialism; U.S. politics and the history of Filipino American activism and resistance; problems of identity as it relates to class, gender/ sexuality, mixed heritages, and generational differences; and Filipino Americans and popular culture. (4 units)

ETHN 55 - Cross-Racial Electoral Politics

This survey course will examine the historical and contemporary political movements among the major minority groups in the United States since the 1960s. The origins and goals of the Black Power movement, the Chicano/a movement, the Asian American movement, and the Native American movement will be focused on during the quarter. Each of these movements embodies similar and different trails with regard to their respective group's quest for political power and elected representation. Due to contemporary immigration trends, Latinos and Asian Americans have challenged the Black-White paradigm that has traditionally defined U.S. racial politics in local and state level politics. The result, in some intances, has been inter-racial competition and conflict at these levels. The necessary elements needed to build and to sustain multi-racial coalitions along with what the political future holds for these minority groups will be addressed. (4 units)

ETHN 96 - Race, Class, and Culture Through Film

This course explores how filmmakers who are concerned about racism portray the politics, history and culture of people of African descent.  We examine how this medium can humanize subjects who are often objectified and exploited and give voice to communities whose perspectives and opinions have been historically excluded from mainstream discourses.  In addition, we consider how films can interrogate the physical, cultural and, sometimes, psychological brutality of racist practices as well as the ways that racism intersects with other forms of marginalization related to class, gender, sexuality and citizenship. The content, production and distribution of these cinematic portraits illuminate the political philosophies, hybrid cultures and emancipating collective action of black communities.  This course also integrates students in faculty research by involving students in a documentary film project about the relationship between the social movements for African liberation and black power. (4 units)

Upper-Division Courses

ETHN 112 - Native Peoples of the United States and Mexico

Examination of the national policies, ideologies, and attitudes that have shaped the lives of indigenous peoples living along the U.S.-Mexico border. Issues include cultural survival, cultural change, national and individual identity, gender relations, legal and political problems, and intercultural relations. (5 units)

ETHN 120 - Mexican Immigration to the United States

Examination of the process of Mexican immigration to the Unites States since 1910 with a focus on the role of Mexican immigrant labor in California agribusiness. An analysis of reasons for Mexican immigration and the responses of the United States to such immigration. Special focus on Mexican farm laborers, the various movements to organize them, and on Cesar Chavez and the UFW. (5 units)

ETHN 121 - Chicana/Chicano Families and Gender Roles

An examination of Chicana/Chicano families in the United States. Addresses two general areas in family research: (1) the historical development of Mexican immigrant families and subsequent generations of communities and families of Mexican Americans, and (2) a life-cycle analysis of families with a specialized focus on gender roles and relations. (5 units)

ETHN 122 - Chicana/Chicano Communities

An examination of the development of the social, cultural, political, and economic structures that shape Chicana/ Chicano communities in the United States. Themes include the evolution of barrios, the historical and contemporary impact of Mexican land grants, ghettoization, education, gangs, employment, and the political economy. (5 units)

ETHN 125 - Latinas/os in the United States

The course examines the experience of Latinas/os in the U.S. by focusing on people of Mexican, Central American (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua) and Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic) descent. The countries of origin, immigration, settlement patterns, comparative issues, and the condition of Latinas/os in the U.S. will be explained. The course content addresses both historical and contemporary issues. (5 units)

EHN 130 - Black Political Thought in Action

This course explores the political theories and praxis of social movements in the black diaspora through the lens of memoir. Beginning with the slave narrative genre, autobiographies of activists of African descent have served as important tools for organizing support for social movements, providing historical evidence of the experiences of black communities and challenging domestic and international policies that affect people of color.  In addition, memoirs have provided an alternative space for black voices to be heard when they have been excluded or ignored by academic, media and political institutions.  Throughout this course, we will examine social movements in the African diaspora through the life stories of activists.  We will also observe how these texts reveal concerns about the meaning of autonomy, freedom, justice and collective consciousness that are common to historically marginalized groups.  In addition, we will consider how personal experiences of race, class, gender, sexuality and citizenship influence various forms of political participation.  Last, we will interrogate the subjectivity and distortion of fact that are often found in even the most well-intentioned memoirs. (5 units)

ETHN 132 - Transnational Political Movements 

This course examines the various forms and dynamics of organizations, activists and movements that engage in collective action to transform institutional policies and practices across nation-state boundaries.  This course is particularly interested in how social movements, international protests and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interact with nation-state governments as well as economic and cultural institutions and why certain communities engage in transnational political contention.  This course is designed to be a collective learning experience in which students examine and interrogate scholarship about social movements, globalization and identity in transnational perspective.  (5 units)

EHN 134 - Black Social Movements

Black social movements consistently challenge the marginalization of communities of African descent.  In the process of contesting the legitimacy and consequences of physical terror, economic exploitation and cultural misappropriation endured by their communities, social movements throughout the African diaspora have created many of the philosophies, repertoires of collective action and aesthetic traditions that lay at the core of our understanding, and imagination, of black life and political dissent.  As this course unfolds, we will closely examine the work of two historical social movements in the African diaspora, Black Power and African Liberation, which envisioned freedom, justice and self-determination for black communities. We will learn about the ideas, tactics and legacies of these movements by conducting interviews with Black Power and African Liberation activists.  In addition, we will evaluate the work of black social movements that are currently organizing in their communities.  Through our research, readings and class discussions, we will interrogate both the iconography and vilification of black social movements and their impact on race and politics in the present-day. (5 units)

EHN 139 - African American Psychology

This course provides an overview of African American psychology.  It does so by examining the multi-dimensional nature of identity development of African Americans and the ways in which racism and class impact identity formation.  This course  approaches psychological development from an African American perspective and reviews current issues in contemporary African American psychology.  The course also examines research methodologies and historical trends that have impacted the way we understand the world in general and African Americans specifically. (5 units)

ETHN 141 - Asian American Women

An examination of Asian American women from a historical and contemporary framework within U.S. society. Focuses on the struggle for identity and adjustment in the first generation and the conflicts with subsequent generations of Asian American women. Analyzes two major themes: (1) the interplay of gender identity formation and conflict, both in the family and in the paid labor force, and (2) the development of individual and collective survival strategies. (5 units)

ETHN 142 - Asian American Communities

An examination of selected topics affecting Asian Americans in the United States. Issues include the changing nature of communities, community institutions, anti-Asian violence, occupational glass ceilings, higher education, political mobilization, gender relations, identity formation, and the new patterns of Asian immigration. (5 units)

ETHN 150 - Racial/Ethnic Writers in Comparative Perspective

An examination of the expression of race and ethnicity in the writings of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Chicanas/os. Themes include the racial/ethnic/gender/class representation of self, identity, culture, and community in U.S. society. Focus on the interrelationship between literature and literary criticism and the sociohistorical context within which it is produced. (5 units)

ETHN 150 - Racial/Ethnic Writers in Comparative Perspective

An examination of the expression of race and ethnicity in the writings of African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Chicanas/os. Themes include the racial/ethnic/gender/class representation of self, identity, culture, and community in U.S. society. Focus on the interrelationship between literature and literary criticism and the sociohistorical context within which it is produced. (5 units)

ETHN 151 - Educating Linguistic and Cultural Minority Students

This course will prepare students who are interested in teaching to work with cultural and linguistic minority students. We will consider the ways in which different groups socialize children for learning and how learning patterns acquired in the home can conflict with the culture of school. Students will consider instructional approaches for working with diverse populations in their classrooms. (5 units)

ETHN 152 - Multi-Racial Identities

The course focuses on multi-racial identity constructs in African-American and Asian-American literature. Using journey as a metaphor, the course seeks to define "movement" and "place" in contexts where physical, spiritual, voluntary or forced journeys contribute to the transformative possibilities of race, class, gender, and identity. (5 units)

ETHN 153 - Minority Politics in the United States

Survey course with a focus on the historical and contemporary struggles of minority groups in the United States. The minority groups analyzed comparatively within a political and institutional context are African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, minority women, gays, and the physically disabled. Various issues include theories of race, ethnicity, gender, and class to understand how these variables serve as a basis for identification and political mobilization in American politics.  (5 units)

ETHN 154 - Women of Color in the US

This course will explore the historical and present day issues for women of color in the U.S. inclusive but not limited to key topics such as sexuality, family, work media and activism.  We will examine the impact of racism, sexism, and classism on African American, Asian American, Latina, Native and White American women in U.S.  Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will also investigate their shared experiences as well as their differences. (5 units)

ETHN 155 - Racism in the US

Multidiciplinary study of racism in the United States including its historical manifestations from the arrival of the Europeans in North America to contemporary times, its psychological dimensions (prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination), and its place within the U.S. political economy.  Course emphasis on African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos, and Native Americans. (5 units)

ETHN 156 - Environmental Racism, Gender and Justice

The phenomenon known as "environmental racism" has made headlines during the last three decades and the movement for environmental justice has made considerable headway during the same period.  In this course, we will examine and interrogate the phenomenon of environmental racism, the empirical evidence concerning this issue, and efforts by governments, residents, workers, and activists to combat it.  We will examine those forces that create environmental injustices in order to understand its causes as well as its consequences.  We will also consider concepts and acitivities that may or may not lead to 1) a more equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of capitalism and 2) more ecologically sustainable forms of production.  You will be expected to master several analytical concepts and social scientific theories related to this topic.  While this course has a particular focus on environmental justice issues as they impact Mexican & Mexican American communities in the U.S., we will also take a look at other minority and lo-income communities within and beyond the U.S. (5 units)

ETHN 157 - Race, Gender, Class and the College Experience

How do we understand our experiences in college?  This course will explore student experiences in higher education by using lenses that focus on race, gender and class.  This course will use activities, self-reflection, lecture, and discussion to explore student identity, the history of higher education, college, access and retention, campus climate, and student development. (5 units)

ETHN 158 – Senior Seminar in Racial and Ethnic in the US

Selected topics in U.S. politics. (5 units)

ETHN 159 - Historical Perspectives in Hip-Hop Culture

This course will examine the history and development of hip-hop culture, paying special attention to its social, cultural, racial, and political dimensions.  We will probe the origins of hip-hop culture; deliberate its political crisis and racial conflict, charting its evolution as a form of collective self-expression among urban youth.  The course will explore four fundamental elements -rap music, politics, gender, and globalization.  We will debate conflicts in rap music - i.e, underground rap versus commercial rap, gangster rap versus conscious rap - as well as the class tensions within hip-hop.  Further, we will examine the political controversies around the hip-hop culture, including linguistic formations, rap music's misogynistic lyrics and homophobic elements.  Finally, we will explore the interracial and global dimension of hip-hop culture and probe the implications of its consumption by white Americans and people around the world. (5 units)

ETHN 194 – Peer Educator in Ethnic Studies

Peer Educators in Ethnic Studies work closely with a faculty member to help students in an Ethnic Studies course understand course material, think more deeply about course material, benefit from collaborative learning, and/or to help students enjoy learning.  Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. (2 units)

ETHN 197 - Special Topics in Ethnic Studies

(1 - 5)

ETHN 198 - Internship

(2 - 5)

ETHN 199 - Directed Readings/Research or Internship

A Capstone senior project representing a student's specialization in ethnic studies. Prerequisite: written approval by the director of the Ethnic Studies Program prior to registration. (2 - 5)