SUMMARY

Arizona State University offers an undergraduate certificate in ethnic studies, which explores the “political, social, economic and cultural realities of racial, ethnic and Indigenous communities in the United States and the Americas.”

• The program aims to “critically analyze racial, ethnic, gender and sexual identities; transnational movements; and diverse forms of cultural, literary and political expression.”

Students are required to take “Ethnic and Indigenous Lives,” “Introduction to Social and Cultural Analysis,” and several upper division elective courses.

COURSES

ETH 100 – Ethnic and Indigenous Lives

The course “undertakes an introductory comparative analysis of ethnic groups to understand cultural diversity within the United States.”

According to a 2019 syllabus, the course studies “colonization, racism, immigration, assimilation, discrimination, and the politics of identity,” as well as how race is “socially constructed.”

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HRC 200 – Introduction to Social and Cultural Analysis

The course focuses on “fields such as American studies, ethnic studies, women and gender studies and Latin American studies” and “examines a range of forms of oppression and privilege from a social justice perspective.”

According to a syllabus posted online in 2023, the course discusses “ways to challenge or end systems of privilege” and “asks how gender, race, and sexualities shape institutional practices and people’s lived experiences.”

• Students are expected to “understand the scope and consequences of race, gender, and sexuality privileges” and write a “social climate paper on how people experience heterosexist discrimination.”

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Elective Courses

Students must choose from a variety of far-left elective courses, such as:

• “Studies in Race and Ethnicity”
• “Protest Literature,” which studies “traditions of social protest literature across a variety of historical periods.”
• “Race and Sexualities in Social Justice Movements”
• “Indigenous and Latina/Chicana Representation”