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Ethnic Studies Minor

 

students on campusCoordinators:

Dr. Shirley A. Jackson(Sociology) and

Dr. Julian Madison (History)

We are pleased to offer students at Southern Connecticut State University a minor in Ethnic Studies. The Ethnic Studies minor is a relatively recent addition to the university's degree offerings and went into effect August 25, 2003. The Ethnic Studies minor is also the first of its kind within the Connecticut State University system.

The minor was developed to educate students in an area that had only been addressed in the Department of Sociology via its Racial and Ethnic Relations specialization and the implementation of its new diversity requirement for majors. The Ethnic Studies minor is a multidisciplinary minor drawing from a variety of disciplines addressing ethnic diversity in the United States. The Ethnic Studies minor allows students the opportunity to study ethnic and racial groups without necessarily shifting or changing their degree programs.

The minor draws upon existing courses, bringing them together in a manner of interest to students from a broad range of majors.  Departments that offer courses in the proposed minor are: Sociology, Urban Studies, History, Political Science, Women's Studies, English, and Journalism.

While universities and colleges began embracing Ethnic Studies; Black Studies (Afro-American, African American, etc.); Chicano/Latino/a Studies; Asian and Asian American Studies; and Native American Studies programs in the 1960s, Southern Connecticut State University remained inattentive in developing departments or programs that address diversity in the United States.  The university's diverse population serves as an opportunity for students and the university community at large to acknowledge and learn about cultural diversity.  According to Luz del Alba Acevedo (2001), "The recognition, affirmation and validation of the cultural attributes that make us different from one another have become important elements in these projects of curriculum transformation" (p. 251).[1]  The Ethnic Studies minor proposes to do just this.


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[1] Acevedo,  Luz del Alba.  2001.  "Speaking Among Friends: Whose Empowerment, Whose Resistance?"  In The Latina Feminist Group (Eds.) Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios.  Durham, NC: Duke University Press.