Minor in Racial and Ethnic Studies (6 Courses)

The minor in Racial and Ethnic Studies addresses how racial and ethnic categories are created, maintained, and transformed. The minor uses interdisciplinary and comparative frameworks to understand the underlying social, cultural, and historical circumstances that impact the formation of racial and ethnic categories. Students will learn about race and ethnicity from different scholarly perspectives to develop a deeper understanding of these phenomena--an expectation that is essential part of a Catholic liberal arts education at Assumption. As the United States becomes more racially and ethnically diverse the minor in Racial and Ethnic Studies pairs well with other majors and minors across Assumption, as employers in a wide range of fields appreciate graduates who understand these changes and work within increasingly diverse workforces.

The minor in Racial and Ethnic Studies will help students:

1. Learn about scholarship that explains the formation, representation, and transformation of racial and ethnic categories in specific social and historical contexts.
2. Explore research that addresses the historical origins of the modern idea of race and of ethnic identities in the United States and other nations.
3. Examine how race and ethnicity shape contemporary socio-economic opportunities and outcomes, and are represented in different cultural genres such as literature, art, music, and visual media.
4. Address how questions of race and ethnicity relate to justice and social change through social movements, activism, and other forms of civic engagement in the US and abroad.
5. Become familiar with different theories that explain the formation of race, racial identity, racism, and ethnocentrism.

Students must complete a total of six courses, three of which must be taken beyond the student’s major requirements as specified in Assumption’s policy on the “double counting” of courses. Of the six courses, students must fulfill the following requirements to complete the minor: