Ethnic Studies

Laws have deeply affected the lives of minority groups in the U.S., and have been a source of both empowerment and deprivation. This course examines some of the U.S. laws and legal issues surrounding minorities, with attention to historical, political and social contexts, focusing on African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, women, and LGBTQis.

This course considers the role of ethnicity as a social and political cleavage. It examines the impact of immigration and ethnic diversity on party politics and political behaviour, using the experiences of countries in Europe and North America. Immigration and ethnicity are one of the major long-term social issues of today, and studying the effects of these phenomena on politics allows students to gain a deeper understanding of long-term political change - as well as current affairs. The approach taken is to consider both the political engagement and representation of immigrants and ethnic minority citizens, and the broader consequences and development of ethnicity and immigration as political issues in their own right. This includes a consideration of racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and Brexit. This course has an empirical emphasis, teaching students to evaluate empirical (including quantitative) research.

This course introduces a field of sociology which is rapidly developing in France: ethnic and racial studies, the study of ethno-racial inequalities, and the process of racialization. The course provides an initial introduction to the field of race studies, as well as the main conceptual and methodological debates that are at the heart of this discipline, and more largely, in the public debate.

This course examines the impact of recent developments in the political and economic relations of Latin American countries-- especially Argentina, Peru, and Brazil-- with East Asian countries-- China, Japan, and South Korea.

This course explores the basic skills of performing and expressing the meaning of songs through actions, as well as the settings in which they are performed. Students perform a complete bracket of kapa haka items in front of an audience consisting of a haka powhiri, waiata, action song, poi, and haka. Furthermore, students introduce each item; name the composer(s) and history of the item; and demonstrate the individual compositions, appropriateness in powhiri (ritual encounter of welcome), and knowledge of Maori protocols. The course also examines the Maori creation story, significant Polynesian ancestors, and constituent parts of the marae and wharenui.

This course examines the Asian diaspora in Latin America. It explores issues of immigration and cultural hybridity as related to descendants and national identity. This course discusses the intertwined relationships among power, representation, and cultural production. It engages visual culture, popular culture and film, and other media, as a means to underscore the role that cultural production has played in transforming, adapting, and sustaining normative ideas regarding ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in relation to citizenship.