Race and Ethnic Studies Minor

The race and ethnic studies (RES) minor examines how racial and ethnic categories are created and maintained — politically, socially and culturally. RES uses critical, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to study race relations as they intersect with factors including gender and sexuality, class, religion and immigration status. The minor prepares students for life and work in a world increasingly characterized by difference derived from racial and ethnic identities.

Learning Outcomes

Facilitate understanding of how the social constructions of race affect the social fabric of our historical and contemporary world; enhance students' abilities to appreciate differences and to actively and critically engage in civic responsibilities, especially with respect to social justice; prepare students to negotiate an increasingly interconnected world and apply their education in a wide range of occupations; gain exposure to the theories and methods of ethnic studies; and compare representations of borderlands, hybridity, migration and diaspora from different cultures to comprehend how national boundaries, as well as local, national, and transnational cultures and politics, affect the constitution of racial and ethnic categories.

Classes for the RES minor are housed in a variety of departments in the College of Liberal Arts, offering students a truly interdisciplinary experience. Please contact the Global Racial and Social Inequality Lab for minor advising.

The race and ethnic studies minor consists of five courses or 20 credits. To complete a minor, students are required to:

1. Enroll in an introductory-level course. (These are listed on the minor website each semester.)
2. Enroll in at least one course at the 600/700-level.
3. Understand that no more than 8 credits used to satisfy the requirements for a major may be used for a minor.
4. Earn a C- or better in each course and maintain a 2.0 grade-point average in courses taken for the minor.

List of Courses Approved for the Minor

Additional Information

Courses taken pass/fail may not be used toward a minor. A relevant internship may be substituted for one of the electives.

After completing the 20-credit sequence, the student submits the Certification of Completion of Minor form, available online or from the RES coordinator. Once this certification is approved by the RES coordinator and major adviser, the form goes to the college dean and the registrar to be recorded on the transcript. The certification form must be completed by the beginning of the student's final semester at the University.