海角换妻

As 海角换妻 rolls out its new major, much of the coursework is already in place. Yet forging this new program is a powerful symbol that the university is committed to this vital subject matter.

鈥淚t really gives more visibility to a lot of the classes that have been offered on campus already. It gives us the opportunity to now think about expanding the offerings, and potentially down the road expanding the number of faculty we have on campus to teach in this field,鈥� says , an associate professor who chairs the collaborative overseeing the new major. 鈥淲hen you have something being offered as a major, it speaks to the importance of that field on a university campus.鈥�

海角换妻 associate literature professor wrote the proposal for the African American and African Diaspora Studies major, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences that is part of CAS鈥檚 (CRGC), which Runstedtler chairs. In an interview, she laid out the details of the African American and African Diaspora Studies discipline, and why students should consider signing up.

鈥淲e鈥檙e really excited about the launch of this. It鈥檚 been a long time coming,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to really have a sustained conversation on this campus.鈥�

The Larger Framework

That conversation has renewed significance, with racist incidents occurring at 海角换妻 and on college campuses nationwide. Runstedtler notes that the rise of student activism around race and inclusion issues at 海角换妻 helped make this program a reality.

鈥淚t really set the context for us to respond with something concrete. That we can say, 鈥楬ey, this is the time. We have the momentum.鈥� We鈥檙e now finally getting the faculty lines in various spaces on campus, to actually be able to mount something like a major,鈥� she says.

On college campuses, racism is typically dealt with through student services, she says. But, she adds, these issues also should be integral to college curricula. 鈥淔or those reasons, it was important for us to signal the legitimacy of African American and African Diaspora Studies as a field in its own right, and one that has its own interdisciplinary rigor. Just as sociology or history or any other field would have.鈥�

In addition, majors like this help make U.S. colleges鈥攚hich were generally founded on Western educational traditions鈥攎ore global in theory and practice. 鈥淚t works to try to decolonize, or decenter, some of the Eurocentric foundations of universities. Albeit in a very small way, it is gesturing to that,鈥� she points out.

Though this major is new to the 海角换妻 campus, Black studies courses in general became more prominent during the counterculture period of the late 1960s-to-early 1970s. 海角换妻 Professor Ibram X. Kendi studied how these programs developed. 鈥淏lack students provided the vision for black studies. Their activism led to its institutionalization,鈥� wrote Kendi, in his book The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972.

Coursework and Flexibility

In 2016, CAS launched the Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies Collaborative (CRGC). In addition to this new African American and African Diaspora Studies major, CRGC houses American Studies, Arab World Studies, Asian Studies, Multi-Ethnic Studies, and Women鈥檚, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The idea behind CRGC is to create something akin to a mini-college within a college, with a focus on marginalized groups.

鈥淚t puts them all in one unit, so that we now have more administrative support. We have a community of faculty who can confer with each other and brainstorm about curriculum,鈥� she says.

The African American and African Diaspora Studies major will have a strong variety of course offerings in the coming year. There are classes on 20th century African American history (which Runstedtler teaches), black feminist thought, Black Lives Matter, and an examination of race, gender, and sexuality through the music of Kendrick Lamar.

Runstedtler says the interdisciplinary program will provide students flexibility, in case they want to double major with a more professionally focused degree. There will also be an internship component鈥攖he abundance of civil rights organizations, think tanks, museums, and historical sites in DC, should give program majors plenty of options.

鈥淭he typical 海角换妻 student doesn鈥檛 want to just do what鈥檚 related to the classroom. They want to figure out how to put that into action off campus as well,鈥� she says.

Growing and Elevating

Though there was an African American and African Diaspora Studies minor鈥攚hich students can still take鈥擱unstedtler believes elevating this to a major will make it more visible. While this may help empower black students, she thinks the major is about more than personal identity.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also about saying, 鈥榃e have to critically study this, because we can鈥檛 contextualize the present without understanding the historical context and its ongoing manifestations,鈥欌�� she explains. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not just about the history of white supremacy, but a larger worldview that鈥檚 developed in the context of African American slavery and the creation of black communities.鈥�

Drawing on her time as a student, Runstedtler notes that people of all races and backgrounds usually take these classes, and she believes white students can benefit from the experience as well. At the outset, though, she assumes the number of student-majors will be modest.

鈥淏ut the major has to be there,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 create it, then there鈥檚 no opportunity for it to ever grow.鈥�