Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) is an interdisciplinary field of study that seeks to understand the ways society is culturally and institutionally constituted by ideas of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. The program provides an innovative, multidisciplinary paradigm that employs global (Western and non-Western), relational, 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, and indigeneity as ideological frameworks, CRES aims to scrutinize cultures of power and domination as well as highlight and imagine struggles for liberation and self-determination.

With outstanding faculty who already teach in programs across campus, undergraduates in the CRES program have a valuable opportunity to create a course of study that gives them strong theoretical grounding and a wide range of topics to explore. Students will engage in a multidisciplinary and supportive academic environment. Critical Race and Ethnic Studies is an exciting and valuable degree that prepares students to enter the workforce as informed citizens in a diverse and challenging society. The major offers a strong liberal arts education for students considering admission to graduate or professional schools and careers in education, law, medicine, public health, social work, counseling, journalism, business, city planning, politics, psychology, international relations, creative writing, and the arts.

Programs

• Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, B.A.  
• Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Minor  

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program Learning Outcomes

The curriculum of CRES is designed to teach students to:

1. Investigate the ways society can be centrally constituted by racial, ethnic, and indigenous formations in global and historical contexts, in preparation for a diverse society and international world.
2. Effectively articulate in oral and written form complex ideas about knowledge, power, and society.
3. Analyze how “race,” “ethnicity,” and/or indigeneity are historically and culturally specific (dependent on time and place); relational (not formed in isolation); and intersectional (informed by other social formations such as class, gender, sexuality, etc.).
4. Develop and use theoretical knowledge in a discipline through a discipline-based theory course that can be used as a foundation for interdisciplinary research in race and ethnic studies.
5. Apply interdisciplinary methods and theories that show practical application in critical race and ethnic studies other than academic reading and writing, such as through performance, art, direct service, internships, and study abroad.