Through an interdisciplinary approach, this course introduces students to the field of Ethnic Studies, focusing on the historical and contemporary experiences of Native Americans, Chicana/o and Latina/o/x Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Special attention is given to systems of oppression foregrounding race and ethnicity, including histories and legacies of settler colonialism and indigenous dispossession, militarized capitalism, chattel slavery and coerced labor, immigration and citizenship laws, and artistic and intellectual expressions. In addition, students will be introduced to the activism and cultural production of those groups in the struggle for social justice, self-determination, and political representation. The course will provide a foundation for understanding the major contributions of historically aggrieved racialized groups and communities that have challenged the status quo in a racist society.

This course provides an introduction to the historical roots of race and racism, and how it has been, and continues to be, a powerful force that shapes American society. Students will closely examine race and ethnicity, and the impacts of racism upon Native Americans, Chicanas/os and Latinas/os, African Americans, and Asian Americans. This course includes an analysis of the economic, political, social, and cultural impact of racial attitudes, behaviors, practices, and public policy. The course will highlight the ways that race and ethnicity intersect with gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, and nation in order to better understand how systems of power and inequality are constructed, reinforced, and challenged. Informed by multiple disciplines, the course will provide a foundation for understanding the impact and role of race and racism in major U.S. institutions.

This course provides an interdisciplinary survey of Native American/American Indian experiences from indigenous ways of knowing. The survey will include an analysis of social, cultural, historical, religious, and artistic expressions of various indigenous American communities. Emphasis will be placed on topics which have been instrumental in shaping contemporary conditions and experiences in the United States and in Indian Country. The course will address historical roots of systemic/structural racism in a wider framework of self-determination, liberation, sovereignty, decolonization, cultural revitalization, and indigenous resurgence. Community engagement and advocacy with indigenous peoples in Ventura County will be critical in participating in an anti-racist pedagogy.

This course provides an interdisciplinary survey of the experiences and contributions made by African Americans with emphasis on the contemporary experience in the United States. This course introduces students to Black Studies as an intellectual, political, and cultural project steeped in a long and international tradition of Black radicalism. It broadly surveys the historical and ongoing process of Black politics, cultural production, and identity formation as structured through race and its intersection with gender, sexualities, and class. The primary focus is on the U.S. and the historical development of Black life, community, and culture against persistent anti-Black racism, economic and political exploitation, gender and sexual oppression, and institutionalized forms of violence.