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ETHN Courses

Lower-Division Courses

  • ETHN 1. Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Land and Labor (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines key historical events and debates in the field that center around land and labor, including disputes about territory and natural resources, slavery and other forms of unfree labor, labor migration and recruitment, and U.S. and transnational borders. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 1R or ETHN 1.
  • ETHN 1R. Remote - Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Land and Labor (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This online course examines key historical events and debates in the field that center around land and labor, including disputes about territory and natural resources, slavery and other forms of unfree labor, labor migration and recruitment, and US and transnational borders. This course is a Distance Education course. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 1R or ETHN 1. 
  • ETHN 2. Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Circulations of Difference (4Course is DEI approved.
    Focusing on historical and contemporary migration and the circulation of commodities, knowledge, bodies, and culture, this course looks at how racial formation in the U.S. and transnationally is shaped and contested by such movements. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 2R or ETHN 2.
  • ETHN 2R. Remote - Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Circulations of Difference (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Focusing on historical and contemporary migration and the circulation of commodities, knowledge, bodies, and culture, this online course examines how racial formation is shaped and contested by such movements within national and transnational contexts. This course is a Distance Education course. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 2R or ETHN 2.
  • ETHN 3. Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Making Culture (4) Course is DEI approved.

    Through examining the historical and contemporary politics of representation in both popular and community-focused media, film, art, music, and literature, this course tracks racial formation through studying the sphere of cultural production, consumption, and contestation.

  • ETHN 3R. Remote - Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Making Culture (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Through examining the historical and contemporary politics of representation in both popular and community-focused media, film, art, music, and literature, this course tracks racial formation through studying the sphere of cultural production, consumption, and contestation via this online learning course. This course is a Distance Education course. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 3R or ETHN 3.

Electives

  • ETHN 20. Introduction to Asian American Studies (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course introduces students to key issues in Asian American lives, with emphasis on the global historical context of migration; changing ethnic and racial consciousness; economic, social and political status; cultural production; and family and gender relations.
  • ETHN 30. Intro to Chicanx & Latinx Studies (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Introduction to Chicanx/Latinx/Hispanic history, culture, and activism with focus on race and class differences within US Latinx cultures and in relation to other groups; gender, sexuality, and colonialism; and new ways of worldmaking within and across these categories.
  • ETHN 87. First-year Seminar (1)
    The First-year Seminar Program is designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. First-year Seminars can be offered in all campus departments and undergraduate colleges, and topics vary from quarter to quarter.

Lower-Division Special Studies

Lower-division students must have at least 30 UC credits and a minimum 3.0 UCSD GPA to participate in a lower-division special studies course.

  • ETHN 97. Field Work in Racial and Ethnic Communities
  • ETHN 98. Directed Group Studies
  • ETHN 99. Supervised Independent Study and Research

Upper-Division Courses

  • ETHN 100A. Ethnic Studies: Theoretical Approaches (4)
    An advanced survey of key issues, themes, and debates in the field of critical ethnic studies focusing on the connection between race and social structures. Students will use diverse theoretical frameworks to identify and interpret contemporary and historical social problems.
  • ETHN 100B. Interdisciplinary Methodologies (4)
    An introduction to interdisciplinary research methodologies in critical ethnic studies. By developing a critical analysis of the politics of knowledge production, students will learn to identify different methodological approaches in the field and to evaluate their use in practical application.
  • ETHN 100C. Social Justice Praxis (4)
    An intensive capstone experience for ethnic studies majors, this course combines an advanced exploration of praxis-based approaches to social justice with practicum-based independent campus, community, creative, or research projects.
  • ETHN 100M. Premedical Ethnic Studies Writing (4)
    This is a writing-intensive course intended to train highly qualified Premedical Ethnic Studies undergraduates through relevant field or lab-based experiences. These experiences can include working in community based health organizations, interning in a science laboratory, conducting a research or advocacy project, assisting a medical doctor, volunteering at a clinic, and others.
  • ETHN 101. Ethnic Images in Film (4)
    An upper-division lecture course studying representations of ethnicity in the American cinema. Topics include ethnic images as narrative devices, the social implication of ethnic images, and the role of film in shaping and reflecting societal power relations.
  • ETHN 101 TV Ethnic Images on TV (4)
    Adopting an ethnic studies lens on the medium, this class focuses on socially significant TV shows that reflect critically on race, gender, class, ability, sexuality, and nation. Students will study the significance of race and related forms of difference in contemporary TV, with a particular emphasis on streaming, audience algorithms, and binge watching.
  • ETHN 102. Science and Technology in Society: Race/Gender/Class (4)
    This course examines the role of science and technology in forming conceptions of race, gender and class, and vice-versa. We also consider how some populations benefit from the results of experimentation while others come to be its subjects.
  • ETHN 103. Environmental Racism (4)
    This course will examine and interrogate the concept of environmental racism, the empirical evidence of its widespread existence, and the efforts by government, 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. Students are expected to learn and apply several concepts and social scientific theories to the course material
  • ETHN 103A. The United States and the Pacific World (4) Course is DEI approved.
    History of the United States in the Pacific, with an emphasis on Hawai’i, Guam, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands, from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include colonialism and imperialism, cultural representations, indigenous knowledge and sovereignty, militarism, tourism, and environmentalism. (Cross-listed with HIUS 103.)
  • ETHN 104. Race, Space, and Segregation (4)
    Through in-depth studies of housing segregation, urban renewal and displacement, neighborhood race effects, and the location of hazards and amenities, this course examines how space becomes racialized and how race becomes spatialized in the contemporary United States.
  • ETHN 105. Ethnic Diversity and the City (4)
    This course will examine the city as a crucible of ethnic identity exploring both the racial and ethnic dimensions of urban life in the U.S. from the Civil War to the present. (Cross-listed with USP 104.)
  • ETHN 106. Life, Death and the Human (4)
    Using interdisciplinary approaches, this course examines some of the contexts in which the conditions of life and death become sites of political, economic, and cultural significance, and how categories of difference impact access to the protections of 'humanity.'
  • ETHN 107. Ethnographic Field Work in Racial and Ethnic Communities (4)
    This is a research methods course examining social, economic, and political issues in ethnic and racial communities through ethnographic fieldwork that places the researcher directly in the social world under study. Topics are examined through fieldwork and library research. (Cross-listed with USP 130.)
  • ETHN 108. Race, Culture and Social Change (4)
    Aggrieved groups often generate distinctive forms of cultural expression by turning negative ascription into positive affirmation and by transforming segregation into congregation. This course examines the role of cultural expressions in struggles for social change by members of aggrieved racialized communities in the U.S. and around the world. (Cross-listed with MUS 151.)
  • ETHN 109. Race and Social Movements (4)
    This course explores collective mobilizations for resources, recognition, and power by members of aggrieved racialized groups, past and present. Emphasis will be placed on the conditions that generate collective movements, the strategies and ideologies that these movements have developed, and on the prospect for collective mobilization for change within aggrieved communities in the present and future.
  • ETHN 109A. Race, Empire, and Japanese America (4)
    This course examines the impact of US and Japanese empires on the Japanese American community. Using primary sources like artwork and oral histories, we examine the struggle against racial exclusion during WWII, the postwar development of the current community, and ongoing solidarity work against current processes of exclusion, incarceration, and detention.
  • ETHN 110. Cultural Worldviews of Indigenous America (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Places Native Americans/indigenous people's ways of living, knowing, and understanding the world in relation to settler-immigrant societies in North America.  Students gain analytical tools for thinking about world views through themes of cosmology, land, kinship, and identity formation.
  • ETHN 111. Native American Literature (4)
    This course analyzes Native American written and oral traditions. Students will read chronicles and commentaries on published texts, historic speeches, trickster narratives, oratorical and prophetic tribal epics, and will delve into the methodological problems posed by tribal literature in translation.
  • ETHN 112A. History of Native American & Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. I (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines the histories of Native American, Pacific Islanders and other Indigenous populations in the United States, with specific emphasis on pre-colonial and post-contact interaction and knowledge systems of Indigenous groups from the 1400s to mid-19th century.
  • ETHN 112B. History of Native American & Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. II (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines the history of Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and other Indigenous populations in the United States, with specific emphasis on and analyses of post-contact interactions, federal laws & policies, and decolonial efforts among American Indians, Pacific Islanders, other tribal communities and Indigenous Peoples/Nations in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. 
  • ETHN 112C. California Native American History (4) Course is DEI approved.
    An introduction to California Native (Indian) history, and how it has shaped people, both Indian and non-Indian, and their possible futures. The course follows 4 interconnecting themes: land & people; Spanish colonization; dispossession and subordination related to the creation of California; and issues of "survivance".
  • ETHN 113. Decolonizing Education (4)
    This course considers decolonial theories of education in relation to classroom pedagogy, focusing on U.S. urban high schools.
  • ETHN 113A. Decolonizing Geology (4)
    The origins, development and practice of the geological sciences are closely tied to colonization, but these ties rarely are acknowledged, discussed, critiqued or used as a basis for rethinking present day practices and trends. We will deconstruct the historical relationship between colonialism and geology, discuss how this relationship has developed over time and explore practical methods for how the field of geology (and, by extension, other fields of western science) might be decolonized.
  • ETHN 114A. Representing Native America (4)
    History and Theory:  Introduction to the history and theory of museum representation of American Indians in order to explore its relation to colonialism and decolonization.  Study of Plains Indian drawings from 1860-1890 will allow the class to create new approaches to designing a museum exhibition.
  • ETHN 114B. Representing Native America - Exhibition Design (4)
    The class will work in teams to design all aspects of an actual museum exhibition of Plains Indian drawings from 1860-1890, turning theory into practice. In some quarters, the exhibition will be installed in a San Diego museum directly after completion of the course.
  • ETHN 115. Monsters, Orphans and Robots (4)
  • This course considers dark agencies, queer threats, and how they seep through cracks in containers meant to disable them. This class will be writing intensive with an artistic production component.
  • ETHN 116. The United States-Mexico Border in Comparative Perspective (4)
    This course critically explores the U.S.-Mexico frontier and the social-cultural issues on both sides of the international demarcation. Social-historical and political-economic patterns illuminate border life, ethnic identity, social diversity and cultural expression. Border Ethnography is complemented by film and music.
  • ETHN 117. Organic Social Movements (4)
    This is a upper-division course on social movements. It requires students to engage primary sources, research scholarly articles and produce analytical writings. Students will participate in lively discussions and will need extra hours outside of class to prepare reflections, essays, review lecture content and research/produce a project based on the assigned materials.
  • ETHN 118. Contemporary Immigration Issues (4)
    This course examines the diversity of todays immigrants-their social origins and contexts of exit and their adaptation experiences and contexts of incorporation.
  • ETHN 119. Race in the Americas (4)
    This course explores the genesis, evolution, and contradictions of racially heterogeneous societies in the Americas, from European conquest to the present. Topics: the social history of Native Americans, Blacks, and Asians, and their interactions with European settlers, and racial, sexual, and class divisions.
  • ETHN 120. Race and Performance: The Politics of Popular Culture (4)
    This course explores how racial categories and ideologies have been constructed through performance and displays of the body in the United States and other sites. Racialized performances, whether self-displays or coerced displays, such as world's fairs, museums, minstrelsy, film, ethnography, and tourist performances are considered.
  • ETHN 120D. Race and Oral History in San Diego (4)
    This course examines the history of racial and ethnic communities in San Diego. Drawing from historical research and interdisciplinary scholarship, we will explore how race impacted the history and development of San Diego and how "ordinary" folk made sense of their racial identity and experiences. Towards these ends,
    students will conduct oral history and community-based research, develop public and digital humanities skills, and preserve a collection of oral histories for future scholarship. (Cross-listed with HIUS 120D.)
  • ETHN 121.Contemporary Asian American History (4)
    The course will study changes in Asian American communities as a result of renewed immigration since 1965; the influx of refugees from Southeast Asia, and the economic impact of contemporary social movements on Asian-Americans' current economic, social, and political status. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 121 and ETHN 121R.
  • ETHN 121R. Remote - Contemporary Asian American History (4)
    This online course will study changes in Asian American communities as a result of renewed immigration since 1965; the influx of refugees from Southeast Asia, and the economic impact of contemporary social movements on Asian-Americans' current economic, social, and political status. This course is a Distance Education course. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 121 and ETHN 121R.
  • ETHN 122. Asian American Culture and Identity (4)
    A survey of Asian American cultural expressions in literature, art, and music to understand the social experiences that helped forge Asian American identity. Topics will include: culture conflict, media portrayals, assimilation pressures, the model minority myth, and interethnic and class relations.
  • ETHN 123. Asian American Politics (4)
    This course will examine the development of Asian American politics by studying the historical and contemporary factors, such as political and economic exclusion, that have contributed to the importance and complexity of ethnicity as a mobilizing force in politics.
  • ETHN 124. Asian American Literature (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Selected topics in the literature by men and women of Asian descent who live and write in the United States. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (Cross-listed with LTEN 181.)
  • ETHN 125. Asian American History (4)
    This course explores historical issues in Asian American history, focusing on major topics such as immigration, colonization, war, community, social movements, and politics. We use  sources such as  scholarly writing, primary documents, cultural productions, and creative work to inform our analysis. Assignments are designed to provoke active discussion and lead to a critical understanding of the links between history and our present day political and socio-economic context. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 125 and ETHN 125R.
  • ETHN 125R.  Remote - Asian American History (4)
    This distance learning course explores historical issues in Asian American history, focusing on major topics such as immigration, colonization, war, community, social movements, and politics. We use sources such as scholarly writing, primary documents, cultural productions, and creative work to inform our analysis. Assignments are designed to provoke active discussion and lead to a critical understanding of the links between history and our present day political and socio-economic context. This course is a Distance Education course. Students may receive credit for one of the following: ETHN 125 and ETHN 125R.
  • ETHN 126. Comparative Filipino & Vietnamese American Identities and Communities (4)
    This course compares the historical and contemporary social, political, and economic experiences of Filipino and Vietnamese Americans, paying particular attention to the impact of U.S. wars in the Philippines and in Vietnam on their respective lives.
  • ETHN 127. Sexuality and Nation (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course explores the nexus of sex, race, ethnicity, gender and nation and considers their influence on identity, sexuality, migration, movement and borders, and other social, cultural, and political issues which these constructs affect. (Cross-listed with CGS 112.)
  • ETHN 128. Hip Hop: The Politics of Culture (4)
    Examination of hip-hop's technology, lyrics, and dance and its influences in graffiti, film, music video, fiction, advertising, gender, corporate investment, government, and censorship with a critical focus on race, gender, and popular culture and the politics of creative expression. (Cross-listed with MUS 152.)
  • ETHN 129. Asian and Latina Immigrant Workers in the Global Economy (4)
    This course will explore the social, political, and economic implications of global economic restructuring, immigration policies, and welfare reform on Asian and Latina immigrant women in the United States. We will critically examine these larger social forces from the perspectives of Latina and Asian immigrant women workers, incorporating theories of race, class, and gender to provide a careful reading of the experiences of immigrant women on the global assemble line. (Cross-listed with USP 135.)
  • ETHN 130. Social and Economic History of the Southwest I (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines the history of the Spanish and Mexican Borderlands (what became the U.S. Southwest) from roughly 1400 to the end of the U.S. -  Mexican War in 1846 - 1848, focusing specifically on the area's social, cultural, and political development (Cross-listed with HIUS 158.)
  • ETHN 131. Social and Economic History of the Southwest II (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines the history of the American Southwest from the U.S. -Mexican War in 1846-48 to the present, focusing on immigration, racial and ethnic conflict, and the growth of Chicano national identity. (Cross-listed with HIUS 159.)
  • ETHN 132. Chicanx Theatre (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines Chicanx theater as a dynamic, multi-vocal, aesthetically complex and generative site for the exploration of Chicanx history, politics and cultural identity. Students engage with a variety of plays and performance artists that track the different themes and inquiries that have emerged out of the Chicano Movement. (Cross-listed with TDHT 110.)
  • ETHN 133. Latinx Theatre and Performance (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines performances from Latinx America that address issues of immigration, sexual politics, and gender, racial, and economic inequality among other topics. Students learn about how artists and communities use performance to explore a wealth of cultural practices and identities that have emerged alongside, and often in response to the historical conditions that shape the disparate yet interconnected experiences of Latinx people living in the US (colonialism, slavery, imperialism). (Cross-listed with TDHT 111.)
  • ETHN 134. Immigration and Ethnicity in Modern American Society (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Comparative study of immigration and ethnic-group formation in the United States from 1880 to the present. Topics include immigrant adaptation, competing theories about the experiences of different ethnic groups, and the persistence of ethnic attachments in modern American society. (Cross-listed with HIUS 180.)
  • ETHN 135A. Early Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production: 1848 to 1960 (4)
    Cross disciplinary study of nineteenth and early twentieth century Latino/a-Chicano/a literature, folklore, music, testimonio, or other cultural practices. Specific periods covered will fall between the immediate aftermath of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the Cuban revolution. Repeatable for credit when topics vary. (Cross-listed with LTSP 150A.) Prerequisites: LTSP 50A or LTSP 50B or LTSP 50C, or consent of instructor.
  • ETHN 135B. Contemporary Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production: 1960 to Present (4)
    Cross disciplinary study of late twentieth century Latino/a-Chicano/a literature, the visual and performing arts, film, or other cultural practices. Specific periods covered will fall between the Kennedy years to the era of neoliberalism and the creation of "Hispanic" or Latino/a identities. Repeatable for credit when topics vary. (Cross-listed with LTSP 150B.) Prerequisites: LTSP 50A or LTSP 50B or LTSP 50C, or consent of instructor.
  • ETHN 136. The Science and Critical Analysis of Environmental Justice (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Introduction to the scientific basis and critical analysis of environmental justice, with an emphasis on case studies, activism and community engagement. This course will prepare students to critique and develop scientific models, research designs and measurements consistent with environmental justice. (Cross-listed with SIO 114.)
  • ETHN 137. Latina Issues and Cultural Production (4)
    This course will focus on the intersection of labor, class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and immigration in Latina cultural production.  Examined from a socio-economic, feminist, and cultural perspective, class readings will allow for historically grounded analyses of these issues.  Course may be repeated as topics vary. (Cross-listed with CGS 137.)
  • ETHN 138. Black & Latinx Crossing (4)
    Explores the intersections of blackness, Chicanidad and Latinidad in relation to each other, focusing on how these identities project, intersect, conflict, and complement each other. Combining cultural and historical analyses, we dissect these rallying banners through the lenses of race, gender, class, nation, pan-ethnicity, diaspora, colonialism, imperialism, citizenship, movement, and solidarity.
  • ETHN 139. Chicano Literature in English (4)
  • Introduction to the literature in English by the Chicano population, the men and women of Mexican descent who live and write in the United States. Primary focus on the contemporary period. (Cross-listed with LTEN 180.)
  • ETHN 140. Comparative Refugee Communities from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (4)
    This course critically examines the impact of the Vietnam War on refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Focusing on everyday refugee life, it pays particular attention to how the refugees have created alternative memories, epistemologies, and lifeworlds.
  • ETHN 140A. Refugee San Diego (4) Course is DEI approved.
    San Diego, California, has the distinction of being home to one of the largest concentrations of refugees in the United States. Through this course, students will learn when, how, and why refugees from all over the world have resettled in San Diego and how they have adjusted to their local environments. Students will also have an opportunity to work with local refugee communities.
  • ETHN 141. Gandhi in the Modern World: From Civil Rights to the Arab Spring (4)
    Martin Luther King was inspired by Gandhi, but in his own time, Gandhi was as controversial as he was revered. Non-violence was not widely accepted as a form of political protest. This course explores Gandhi's complex legacy of non-violence for places and peoples embroiled in conflict.
  • ETHN 142. Medicine, Race, and the Global Politics of Inequality (4) Course is DEI approved.
    Globalization fosters both the transmission of AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases and gross inequalities in the resources available to prevent and cure them. This course focuses on how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class and nation both shape and are shaped by the social construction of health and disease worldwide.
  • ETHN 143. Chicana/o Film and Media Studies (4)
    This course is a historical survey of Chicana and Chicano media from roughly 1950 to the present. The goals of the course include learning about Chicana/o history, politics, and culture through different media and gaining the critical tools to analyze Chicana/o media and media more broadly.
  • ETHN 144M. Antiracist Medicine & New Perspectives in Healthcare (4)
    Medicine in the U.S. is sustained by inequities in racial, sexual, and dis/ability knowledge and practice. Health practitioners, patients, and scholars have argued for an antiracist medical education that explores power  dynamics, stereotypes, and violence in medicine. This course utilities an antiracist lens to examine medical knowledge and practice. Additionally, the course draws from the theoretical and narrative perspectives about health from artists, scholars, and Activists.
  • ETHN 146A. Theatrical Ensemble (4)
    An intensive theatre practicum designed to generate theatre created by an ensemble, with particular emphasis upon the analysis of text. Students will explore and analyze scripts and authors. Ensemble segments include: black theatre, Chicano theatre, feminist theatre, commedia dell'arte theatre. (Cross listed with TDAC 120.)
  • ETHN 147. Black Feminisms, Past and Present (4)
    An advanced introduction to historical and contemporary Black feminisms in the US and transnationally. Students will explore the theory and practice of Black feminists/womanists, and analyze the significance of Black feminism to contemporary understandings of race, class, gender, and sexuality. (Cross-listed with CGS 147.)
  • ETHN 149. African American History in the 20th Century (4)
    This course examines the transformation of African America across the expanse of the long 20th Century. In addition to the effects of imperialism, migration, urbanization, desegregation and deindustrialization, special emphasis will be placed on issues of culture, international relations, and urban politics. (Cross-listed with HIUS 139.)
  • ETHN 150. Visuality, Sexuality and Race (4)
    Examines the role of the visual in power relations; the production of what we “see” regarding race and sexuality; the interconnected history of the caste system, plantation slavery, visuality and contemporary society; decolonial and queer counternarratives to visuality. (Cross-listed with CGS 150.)
  • ETHN 151. Ethnic Politics in America (4)
    This course will survey the political effects of immigration, ethnic mobilization, and community building in America, and the contemporary role of ethnicity in politics and intergroup relations.
  • ETHN 152. Law and Civil Rights (4)
    In this course students explore the relationship between race, class, and law as it applies to civil rights both in an historical and a contemporary context. Topics include racism and the law, history of the 14th Amendment, equal protection, school desegregation, and affirmative action.
  • ETHN 153. Citizenship and Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course traces the history of the institution of U.S. citizenship in the last century, tracing changing notions of racial, cultural, and gender differences, the evolution of the civil rights struggle, and changes in laws governing citizenship and access to rights. (Cross-listed with HIUS 136.)
  • ETHN 154. History of Mexican America (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course explores the history of the largest minority population in the United States, focusing on the legacies of the Mexican War, the history of Mexican immigration and U.S.-Mexican relations, and the struggle for citizenship and civil rights. (Cross-listed with HIUS 113.)
  • ETHN 155. U. S. Militarism (4)
    This course considers rationales for and responses to American military expansion as well as its social, environmental, and cultural consequences.  We will examine racialized, gendered, and sexualized aspects of militarized institutions and practices, including militarized colonialism, tourism, and sex work.
  • ETHN 155GS. Critical Perspectives on the Vietnam War (4)
    This course examines the impact of the Vietnam War on three populations: Americans, Vietnamese in Vietnam, and Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese.) We will supplement scholarly texts on the war with films, literature, and visits to war museums and monuments. This course will be taught in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as part of the Global Seminars program in Summer 2015. Students must apply and be accepted to the Global Seminars program.   
  • ETHN 157. Madness and Urbanization (4)
    This course will provide a historical and theoretical orientation for contemporary studies of the experience of mental illness and mental healthcare policy in the American city, with critical attention to racial and ethnic disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. (Cross-listed with USP 149.)
  • ETHN 158. Native American Intellectuals in the 20th Century (4)
    This course examines Native American intellectuals' work. It provides a broad historical perspective on the development of 20th century Native political thinking and discusses the recurring issues, problems, and themes inherent to Indian-white relations, as seen from Indian perspectives.
  • ETHN 159. Topics in African American History (4)
    A colloquium dealing with special topics in the history of people of African descent in the United States. Themes will vary from quarter to quarter. Requirements will vary for undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. students. Graduate students will be required to submit a more substantial piece of work. (Cross-listed with HIUS 183.)
  • ETHN 160. Global Indigenous Studies (4)
    Focusing on trans-regional relationships to land and decolonization in the Pacific, Caribbean, and the Americas, this course is a comparative study of cultural and political phenomena that shape Indigenous communities globally. We will examine enduring legacies of colonialism, nationalism and Western normativities, and explore Indigenous activism within the decolonial movement.
  • ETHN 161. Black Politics and Protest Since 1941 (4)
    Discussion of black social, political, and intellectual experiences since the publication of Richard Wright's Native Son. Close examination of blacks' involvement in and relationships to Second World War, Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, Reagan Revolution, and Underclass Debate.
  • ETHN 162. Practicum in California Tribal Law and Journalism (4)
    Work with California Native tribal groups, leaders, and members to identify common, pressing questions surrounding Indian law. In partnership with legal experts, develop and disseminate new media programs and useful documents accessible to Native communities throughout California.
  • ETHN 163E. Decolonial Theory (4)
    Decolonial Theory will focus on historical and contemporary intellectual work produced by activists from colonized regions of the world. This course will be international in scope, but attentive to local struggles.

  • ETHN 163F. Playing Indian: Native American and First Nations Cinema (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course examines recent movies by Native American/First Nations artists that labor to deconstruct and critique reductive stereotypes about America's First Peoples in Hollywood Cinema. Carving spaces of "visual sovereignty" (Raheja), these films propose complex narratives and characterizations of Indigeneity. (Cross-listed with TDGE 131.)
  • ETHN 163FR. Playing Indian: Native American and First Nations Cinema (4)
    ​This online course examines recent movies by Native American/First Nations artists that labor to deconstruct and critique reductive stereotypes about America's First Peoples in Hollywood Cinema. Carving spaces of "visual sovereignty" (Raheja), these films propose complex narratives and characterizations of Indigeneity. (Cross-listed with TDGE 131R.)
  • ETHN 163G. Indigenous Theatre and Performance (4)
    This theoretical and embodied course examines a selection of Indigenous plays and performances (dance, hip hop) and helps students develop the critical vocabulary and contextual knowledge necessary to productively engage with the political and artistic interventions performed by these works. (Cross-listed with TDHT 120.)
  • ETHN 163I. Asian American Histography (4)
    This course introduces students to the field of Asian American history, with an emphasis on historiographical shifts and debates. It includes a wide range of topics and methodologies that cross disciplinary boundaries. (Cross-listed with HIUS 177.)
  • ETHN 163J. Asian American Social Movements (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course introduces students to the history of Asian American social movements from the late-19th century to the present, with an emphasis on inter-ethnic, cross-racial, and transnational practices. Topics include immigration reform, antiwar and anti-colonial movements, redress, hate crimes, and police brutality. (Cross-listed with HIUS 125.)
  • ETHN 164. African Americans and the Mass Media (4)
    This course will examine the media representations of African Americans from slavery through the twentieth century. Attention will be paid to the emergence and transmission of enduring stereotypes, and their relationship to changing social, political, and economic frameworks in the United States. The course will also consider African Americans' responses to and interpretations of these mediated images. (Cross-listed with MUS 153.)
  • ETHN 165. Gender and Sexuality in African American Communities (4)
    This course will investigate the changing constructions of sex, gender, and sexuality in African American communities defined by historical period, region, and class. Topics will include the sexual division of labor, myths of black sexuality, the rise of black feminism, black masculinity, and queer politics. (Cross-listed with CGS 165.)
  • ETHN 166. Arab/Muslim American Identity and Culture (4)
    This class explores (self) representations of Muslim and Arab Americans in U.S. popular culture with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries. Topics include: the racing of religion, "the war on terror" in the media, feminism and Islam, immigration, race, and citizenship. May be repeated for credit three times when content varies. (Cross-listed with LTEN 179.)
  • ETHN 167. Muslim Identity in America (4)
    This course is an introduction to the study of Muslims in the US. It examines the ways in which questions of race, gender, and white settler colonial plantation state practices have shaped Muslim lives, both historically and in present times. Topics include: the arrival of African Muslims in slave ships, growing Latinx Muslim presence, South Asian and Arab-American Muslims, Immigrant-Indigenous-Black Muslim debates, media representation, resistance movements, and questions of national belonging.
  • ETHN 167A. Decolonial Muslim Feminisms (4)

    This course is a pedagogical analysis of the connections between decolonial thinking and studies of Muslims, Islam, and the Islamicate. Students will explore contours of decolonial epistemologies in sacred and secular Muslim texts such as the Qur'an, Hadith, and other sites including those of law, borders, immigration, home, labor, desire, and fashion.

  • ETHN 168. Comparative Ethnic Literature (4)  Course is DEI approved.
    A lecture-discussion course that juxtaposes the experience of two or more U.S. ethnic groups and examines their relationship with the dominant culture. Students will analyze a variety of texts representing the history of ethnicity in this country. Topics will vary. (Cross-listed with LTEN 178.)
  • ETHN 169. Origins of the Atlantic World (4)
    An examination of interactions among the peoples of western Europe, Africa, and the Americas that transformed the Atlantic basin into an interconnected "Atlantic World." Topics will include maritime technology and the European Age of Discovery, colonization in the Americas, the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade and early development of plantation slavery in the New World. (No credit for 169 and 170A.)
  • ETHN 170. Slavery and the Atlantic World (4)
    The development of the Atlantic slave trade and the spread of racial slavery in the Americas before 1800. Explores the diversity of slave labor in the Americas and the different slave cultures African Americans produced under the constraints of slavery.(No credit for 170 and 170B.)
  • ETHN 172. Afro-American Prose (4)
    Students will analyze and discuss the novel, the personal narrative, and other prose genres, with particular emphasis on the developing characters of Afro-American narrative and the cultural and social circumstances that influence their development. (Cross-listed with LTEN 183.)
  • ETHN 173GS. Gender, Sexuality and War (4)
    This course examines the effects of war and militarism on women's lives, focusing in particular on the experiences of Vietnamese women during and in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. This course will be taught in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as part of the Global Seminars program in Summer 2015. Students must apply and be accepted to the Global Seminars program.
  • ETHN 174. Themes in Afro-American Literature (4)
    This course focuses on the influence of slavery upon African American writers. Our concern is not upon what slavery was but upon what it is within the works and what these texts reveal about themselves, their authors, and their audiences. (Cross-listed with LTEN 185.)
  • ETHN 175. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance (4)
    The Harlem Renaissance (1917-39) focuses on the emergence of the "New Negro" and the impact of this concept on black literature, art, and music. Writers studied include Claude McKay, Zora N. Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Special emphasis on new themes and forms. (Cross-listed with LTEN 186.)
  • ETHN 177. Race, Sound, and Music (4)
    This course considers the history of listening to the music of the world in Western culture. We will critically examine how the history of perception directs us to listen for familiar and different sounds in music. No musical training required.
  • ETHN 178. Blues: An Oral Tradition (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course will examine the development of the Blues from its roots in work-songs and the minstrel show to its flowering in the Mississippi Delta to the development of Urban blues and the close relationship of the Blues with Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll. (Cross-listed with MUS 126.)
  • ETHN 178R. Remote Blues: An Oral Tradition (4) Course is DEI approved.

    This online course will examine the development of the Blues from its roots in work-songs and the minstrel show to its flowering in the Mississippi Delta to the development of Urban Blues and the close relationship of the Blues with Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: MUS 126, MUS 126R, ETHN 178, or ETHN 178R.(Cross-listed with MUS 126 and MUS 126R.)

  • ETHN 179. Discover Jazz (4) Course is DEI approved.

    Offers an introduction to jazz, including important performers and their associated styles and techniques. Explores the often provocative role jazz has played in American and global society, the diverse perceptions and arguments that have surrounded its production and reception, and how these have been inflected by issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Specific topics vary from year to year. (Cross-listed with MUS 127)

  • ETHN 179A. Jazz Roots and Early Development (1900-1943) (4)
    This course will trace the early development of Jazz and the diverse traditions which helped create this uniquely American art form. We will witness the emergence of Louis Armstrong in New Orleans and examine the composer's role in Jazz with Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington. (Cross-listed with MUS 127A.)
  • ETHN 179B. Jazz Since 1946: Freedom and Form (4)
    This course will examine the evolution of Jazz from 1943 to the present. The course will survey the contrasting and competing styles in Jazz from BEBOP to COOL to the avant garde and fusion. (Cross-listed with MUS 127B.)
  • ETHN 180. Topics in Mexican-American History (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This colloquium studies the racial representation of Mexican-Americans in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, examining critically the theories and methods of the humanities and social sciences. (Cross-listed with HIUS 167.)
  • ETHN 182. Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction (4) Course is DEI approved.
    This course focuses on race, gender, and sexuality in 20th and 21st century fantasy and science fiction. We will study literature, film, music, television, video games, and the internet in order to situate such speculative visions in historical and transmedia contexts.
  • ETHN 183. Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class (4)
    Gender is often neglected in studies of ethnic/racial politics. This seminar explores the relationship of race, ethnicity, class, and gender by examining the participation of working class women of color in community politics and how they challenge mainstream political theory. (Cross-listed with CGS 114.)
  • ETHN 184. Black Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century (4)
    An analysis of black cultural and intellectual production since 1895. Course will explore how race and race-consciousness have influenced the dialogue between ideas and social experience; and how other factors i.e., age, gender, and class affected scholars' insights.
  • ETHN 185. Discourse, Power, and Inequality (4)
    While discourse analysis has transformed numerous disciplines, a gap separates perspectives that envision discourse as practices that construct inequality from approaches which treat discourse as everyday language. This course engages both perspectives critically in analyzing law, medicine, and popular culture.
  • ETHN 186. Queer of Color Performance (4)
    This course examines race and sexuality as performance. Performance studies analyzes how social forms like gender, race, sexuality, nationality, belief, and ability are constructed, normalized, and reimagined. Through art and writing by queer people of color, we examine how culture is enacted not just in formal venues like theatres, but in public spaces, through institutions like the court, in film and literature, and in one's relationships and communities.
  • ETHN 187. Latinx Sexualities (4)
    The construction and articulation of Latinx sexualities will be explored in this course through interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. We will discuss how immigration, class, and norms of ethnicity, race, and gender determine the construction, expression, and reframing of Latinx sexualities. (Cross-listed with CGS 187.)
  • ETHN 188. African Americans, Religion, and the City (4)
    This course details the history of African-American migration to urban areas after World War I and World War II and explores the role of religion in their lives as well as the impact that their religious experiences had upon the cities in which they lived. (Cross-listed with USP 132.)
  • ETHN 189. Special Topics in Ethnic Studies (4)
    A reading and discussion course that explores special topics in ethnic studies. Themes will vary from quarter to quarter; therefore, course may be repeated three times as long as topics vary.
  • ETHN 190. Research Methods: Studying Racial and Ethnic Communities (4) Course is DEI approved.
    The course offers students the basic research methods with which to study ethnic and racial communities. The various topics to be explored include human and physical geography, transportation, employment, economic structure, cultural values, housing, health, education, and intergroup relations. (Cross-listed with USP 129.)

Ethnic Studies Honors

  • ETHN 100H. Honors Research Design (4)
    This discussion-based course will focus on the application of advanced research methods to the design of extensive, independent research-based projects.
  • ETHN 196H. Honors Thesis (4)

    Independent study to complete an honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty member who serves as thesis advisor.

ETHN 100H and ETHN 196H must be taken for a letter grade only.

Special Studies Courses

  • ETHN 197. Fieldwork in Racial and Ethnic Communities (4)
    This course comprises supervised community fieldwork on topics of importance to racial and ethnic communities in the greater San Diego area. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports are required. (May be repeated for credit).
  • ETHN 198. Directed Group Studies (4)
    Directed group study on a topic or in a field not included in the regular department curriculum by special arrangement with a faculty member. (May be repeated for credit).
  • ETHN 199. Supervised Independent Study and Research (4)
    Individual research on a topic that leads to the writing of a major paper. (May be repeated for credit).

No more than two Special Studies courses will be counted in fulfillment of the elective requirement; permission of instructor required for enrollment.

For more information, please contact: ethnicstudies@ucsd.edu.