Ethnic Studies
Ethnic studies is the critical interdisciplinary study of race and racism utilizing intersectional, comparative, relational, and transnational approaches that focus on the histories, experiences, cultures, and struggles of historically minoritized ethnoracial groups in the United States while centering a praxis of racial justice. Emerging from the historic campus and community civil rights struggles of the late 1960s, the field focuses primarily on Indigenous/Native American studies, Black/African American studies, Latinx/Chicanx studies, and Asian American/Pacific Islander studies, each with their own epistemological and methodological frameworks, while also engaging in the analysis of other racialized ethnic groups in the U.S. An emphasis is placed on the hierarchical and systemic power relations (settler colonialism, white supremacy, cishetero-patriarchy, classism etc.) that arise from institutional, cultural, and global productions/hierarchies of “race.”
Ethnic Studies also investigates how race and ethnicity intersect with class, gender, ability, and sexuality in order to help students develop a critical understanding of the complex and intersecting historical struggles and movements for social transformation, resistance, and liberation in the U.S. and beyond.
For more information, please call 760.776.5487
Abraham Ramirez
asramirez@collegeofthedesert.edu
760.568.7514
David Montoya
dmontoya@collegeofthedesert.edu
760.565.4855
