Ethnic Studies

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Through the study of the literary, political, social and psychological dimensions of representative works of Asian American literature, this course introduces students to close textual analysis, fosters critical judgment, and reinforces academic writing skills. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course examines literary works by Asian American, African American, Chicano, and Native American writers in their political and social contexts, focusing on similarities and differences between the experiences of ethnic minorities in the U.S. Emphasis is on literary interpretation and sustained analytical writing. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Introductory comparative analysis of the Asian American experience from 1848 to present. Topics include an analysis of the Asian American perspective; cultural roots; immigration and settlement patterns; labor, legal, political, and social history.
Introduction to the History of Asians in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2023
This course will be a survey of contemporary issues affecting the Asian American community. We will look at the different theories that explain the current status of Asian Americans and the interrelationship between the Asian American community, nation, and world. The course will focus on the issue of race relations, the commonalities and differences between Asian Americans and other race and ethnic groups.
Asian American Communities and Race Relations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
The course examines critical issues in Asian American communities today. In particular, the course will focus on key themes, such as immigration, identity, discrimination, mental health and political power. An important objective of this course is educating students on social justice issues facing the Asian American community.
Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Analysis of social, intellectual, and artistic currents in Asian American communities. Focus will be on social practices, popular culture, the arts and expression (e.g. language and literature), and the historical and political contexts in which they are produced and consumed.
Cultural Politics and Practices in Asian American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Summer 2021 8 Week Session, Fall 2020
This course will be a survey of contemporary issues affecting the Asian American community. We will look at the different theories that explain the current status of Asian Americans and the interrelationship between the Asian American community, nation, and world. The course will focus on the issue of race relations, the commonalities and differences between Asian Americans and other race and ethnic groups.
Asian American Communities and Race Relations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2021, Fall 2018
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
University organized and supervised field program involving experiences in schools, school-related activities, community and community-related activities.
Field Studies in Asian American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Group study of selected topics which will vary from semester to semester.
Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual research on a topic which leads to the writing of a major paper. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Chinese American history, 1848 to present. Topics include influence of traditional values, Eastern and Western; patterns of immigration and settlement; labor history; the influence of public policy, foreign and domestic, on the Chinese individual and community.
Chinese American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will be presented as a proseminar with selected topics in order to give students an opportunity to participate in the dynamics of the study of Japanese American history. Topics include immigration, anti-Japanese racism, labor, concentration camps, agriculture, art and literature, and personality and culture.
Japanese American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Spring 2011, Fall 2005
Koreans in America from 1876 to the present. Topics include comparative immigration and settlement patterns; labor and socio-economic life; political activities; community organization; and issues related to the contemporary population influx.
Korean American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
Topics include consequences of the Spanish-American War on Filipino emigration; conditions in Hawaii and California and the need for Filipino labor; community development; changing relations between the U.S. and the Philippines; effects ofthe independence movement and World War II on Filipino Americans; and contemporary issues.
Filipino American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Spring 2019
This course will introduce students to the sociocultural, economic, educational, and political issues facing Southeast Asian refugees in the U.S. While the course focus is on the Asian American experience, references will be made to the pre-migration experiences and histories of the Southeast Asian refugee groups. The processes and problems in the formulation of refugee programs and services in the U.S. also will be addressed in their implications for refugee resettlement and adaptation experience. Emphasis will be placed on comparative analyses of the Southeast Asian refugee communities.
Contemporary Issues of Southeast Asian Refugees in the U.S: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2010, Fall 2009
This course will examine Southeast Asian migration and resettlement in the U.S. in the context of the United States involvement in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during the Vietnam War. It will also address the post-war "legacies" and their impact on the societies and politics of the three countries as well as neighboring states in the region. Asylum politics and refugee camp experiences will be addressed in the discussion of the formation of U.S. resettlement policies and of the adaptation of Southeast Asian refugees.
Southeast Asian Migration and Community Formation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2019
Examines immigration and social history of South Asian Americans from the early 20th century to present. Development of South Asian American communities within the social, political and economic contexts of South Asia and the U.S.
South Asian American Historical and Contemporary Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Muslims in America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022
Analyzes the global presence of an Asian group with a significant U.S. population: migration/settlement history, transnational economic/political/cultural interactions between diasporic communities and with land of origin, impact on Asian American community/identity formation. Instructor selects group(s).
Asian Diaspora(s) from an Asian American Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2010
This course will examine and attempt to understand Islamophobia, as the most recently articulated principle of otherness and its implications domestically and globally. The course will also closely examine the ideological and epistemological frameworks employed in discourses of otherness, and the complex social, political, economic, gender-based, and religious forces entangled in its historical and modern reproduction.
Islamaphobia and Constructing Otherness: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will examine and attempt to understand Islamophobia, as the most recently articulated principle of otherness and its implications domestically and globally. The course will also closely examine the ideological and epistemological frameworks employed in discourses of otherness, and the complex social, political, economic, gender-based, and religious forces entangled in its historical and modern reproduction.
Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
Topics in Asian popular culture. Analysis of historical and contemporary issues addressed in popular media focused on a specific Asian country, such as 1990s Hong Kong cinema, fifth generation Chinese films, films of China and Taiwan, Japanese and Korean anime, South Asian and Bollywood cinema, and South Korean film and television drama. Course topics will vary with the expertise of the particular instructor.

Topics in Asian Popular Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
Course will examine the nature, structure, and operation of selected legal institutions as they affect Asian American communities and will attempt to analyze the roles and effects of law, class, and race in American society. May be taken with 197.
Law in the Asian American Community: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines the state of Asian American health, the historical, structural, and cultural contexts of diverse Asian American communities, and the role of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in the production of unequal outcomes between Asian Americans and other racial/ethnic groups as well as across different Asian American subgroups.
Asian American Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course examines community health theories, contemporary issues, and culturally responsive approaches to advance health equity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Students will gain foundational knowledge on structural discrimination and racism as the root cause of poor community health; and explore contemporary issues such as gentrification, incarceration, human trafficking, community trauma, mental health, and stigmatized chronic/infectious diseases. The course will include guest presentations, case studies, professional skills training, and field trips to Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander-serving clinics and community-based organizations.
Advancing Health Equity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This course will examine how Asian American communities engage religion and how, in turn, they are shaped by the different facets of religious life. Religion is examined in the form of major traditions-Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity-and readings will introduce students to key concepts, practices, and institutions which help to define these trajectories.
Religions of Asian America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2011, Spring 2010
An examination of the purpose, power, and function of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government and their relationship to the Asian American community. The course presents a range of contemporary issues to illustrate how government institutions and the Asian community define issues and respond to political challenges.
Politics, Public Policy, and Asian American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
An examination of the purpose, power, and function of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government and their relationship to the Asian American community. The course presents a range of contemporary issues to illustrate how government institutions and the Asian community define issues and respond to political challenges.
Politics, Public Policy, and Asian American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines the historical and contemporary issues which shape the educational experiences of Asian Americans. Critical issues such as bilingual education, university admissions, and the education of Asian immigrants as well as theoretical models of Asian American academic success will be explored and critically analyzed.
Asian Americans and Education: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2018
The influence of cultural legacy, ethnic background, immigration history, community structure, class and economic status, and racism on gender and generational relations in the Asian American family.
Gender and Generation in Asian American Families: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2013, Spring 2012
Examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American women in relation to work, sexuality, intellectual and artistic activity, and family and community life as well as the development of Asian American feminist thought and its relation to cultural nationalism.
Asian American Women: Theory and Experience: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American women in relation to work, sexuality, intellectual and artistic activity, and family and community life as well as the development of Asian American feminist thought and its relation to cultural nationalism.
Asian American Women: Theory and Experience: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021
This course offers a critical sociological examination of what it means to be a 1.5 and second-generation Asian American today. Since the liberalization of immigration policy in 1965, immigrants and their children are becoming an increasing and emergent demographic of American society. In major American cities they comprise over 50% of the population. How does the second-generation Asian American experience compare to other racial groups? How is the second-generation changing the United States’ racial and ethnic structure? How is the second generation becoming American? We will explore these questions through second-generation Asian American experiences of race and ethnicity, religion, family, education, dating, and mental health.
The Second Generation Asian American Experience: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
Introduces students to films and videos by and about Asian Americans; presents an overview of the development of the Asian American media arts field in relation to current cultural theories and American film history and theory.
Asian Americans in Film and Video: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Introduces students to representative works of Asian American literature by writers from the major ethnic subgroups; examines the works in their sociohistorical context; analyzes thematic and formal elements intertextually to form a coherent understanding of the Asian American literary tradition.
Asian American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Instruction and practice in forms and techniques of prose, verse, drama or other writing as an expression of Asian American experiences and a contribution to evolving Asian American culture; may focus on specific genres or tasks depending on instructor.
Creative Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course invites students to explore specific themes, developments, histories, or forms within the literature and culture of Asian American communities, such as coming of age stories, contemporary migration, space and politics, race and technology, speculative fiction, and war and empire. Analysis will span works from different Asian American subgroups and examine the relationship between cultural production and social, political, and historical developments. The specific course topic in a semester will vary with the aims and expertise of the particular instructor.
Topics in Asian American Literature and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session
The course will examine the various strategies of (re-)narrating colonial/neocolonial history in three genres: literature (novels, short fiction, poetry), essays, and films from the Philippines and the United States. Notions such as imperialism, nation, narration, history, nationalism, memory, ethnicity, language, power, gender, and subject formation will be discussed.
Contemporary Narratives on the Philippines and the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Investigates specific genres in Asian American literature (e.g., autobiography, biography, drama, etc.) in terms of formal characteristics, innovations, comparisons of works from various subgroups in relation to counterparts in dominant Anglo-American tradition.
Genre in Asian American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2015, Summer 2005 10 Week Session
Explores gender/sexuality issues in Asian American literature and culture, such as simultaneous construction of gender/ethnicity/race/culture; heterosexual (masculinist/feminist) and gay/lesbian cultural projects; the body; family relations; matrilineal and patrilineal traditions. Instructor selects focus.
Gender and Sexuality in Asian American Literature and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Fall 2011, Spring 2009
Analyzes literary representations of contemporary and/or historical experiences of Chinese Americans; genre, formal, and stylistic features; definition of cultural identity and development of literary tradition. Primarily English-language works, some translations from Chinese.
Chinese American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2010
Critical readings of major Korean American literary work, including autobiography and personal memoir, autobiographical fiction, poetry, short stories and novel, with attention to conditions surrounding the production and consumption of these writings.
Korean American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Advanced seminar in Asian American Studies with topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.
Seminar on Advanced Topics in Asian American Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The Asian Pacific American Theme House (APATH) seminar is designed to provide APATH community members and any other UC Berkeley students interested in finding an academic and rigorous space to learn about university culture and expectations and to explore their interests in Asian American Studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identities, communities, leadership and career aspirations. The fall semester focuses on transition to college through the lens of AAPI issues and experiences of Asians in the U.S. The spring semester focuses on strategies of persistence and tenacity. This yearlong course is a required component for APATH residents however the course is open to any Berkeley students to enroll.
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The Asian Pacific American Theme House (APATH) seminar is designed to provide APATH community members and any other UC Berkeley students interested in finding an academic and rigorous space to learn about university culture and expectations and to explore their interests in Asian American Studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identities, communities, leadership and career aspirations. The fall semester focuses on transition to college through the lens of AAPI issues and experiences of Asians in the U.S. The spring semester focuses on strategies of persistence and tenacity. This yearlong course is a required component for APATH residents however the course is open to any Berkeley students to enroll.
Asian Pacific American Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Writing of a thesis under the direction of member(s) of the faculty.
Senior Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
Course for senior Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies maors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Course for senior Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies maors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Supervised fieldwork experience with campus and community organizations related to the vision and mission of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. This University organized and supervised field program is an opportunity for students to think critically about the work of engaged scholarship through their participation a variety of community-based activities and events. Students will be required to meet regularly with a faculty sponsor and submit a final project.
Field Study in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Group study of selected topics which will vary from semester to semester.
Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual research on a topic which leads to the writing of a major paper. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1998 10 Week Session, Summer 1997 10 Week Session, Summer 1995 10 Week Session
To acquaint Summer Bridge students with methods of expository discourse through the reading of Chicano literature. An introduction to writing, begining with sentence structure, with an emphasis on unity, coherence, and overall organizational of a full composition.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Course will acquaint students with methods of expository discourse through the reading of Chicano/a literature. An introduction to writing, beginning with sentence structure, with an emphasis on unity, coherence, and overall organization of a full composition. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Summer 2005 10 Week Session
Course will acquaint students with methods of expository discourse through the reading of Chicano literature. An introduction to writing, beginning with sentence structure, with an emphasis on unity, coherence, and overall organization of a full composition. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course examines literary works by Chicano/a writers in their political and social contexts. Emphasis is on literary interpretation and sustained analytical writing. The course aims to develop students' fluency in writing longer and more complex papers, with specific attention to the development of their research skills and their ability to incorporate source material effectively. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition Requirement.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2005 10 Week Session, Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session
Continuation of Spanish 1 in the area of grammar. Special emphasis on increasing vocabulary and developing functional fluency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish. Focus on conversational practice of everyday situations, supplemented by language laboratory work. Further study and discussion of different aspects of Latin American culture.
Intensive Elementary Spanish Language and Latin American Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2005 10 Week Session, Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session
An intensive Spanish language immersion course in Mexico with a review and enrichment of grammar and vocabulary, and practice in composition. This course will also present an overview of Mexican culture including historical, geographical, and economic aspects, as well as literature, art, music, and folklore, with special focus on family life and direct social contact. Particular emphasis will be placed on the period from independence to the present.
Intensive Intermediate Spanish Language and Mexican Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
What is culture, and who are Latinx people? This class is an introduction to how culture is studied, who Latinx people are, and the cultural expressions of Latinx people. We’ll begin by analyzing how scholars have studied culture, focusing on the three broad categories: folk culture, pop culture, and what had long been referred to as “high” culture but is now described as “cultural production.” We’ll also study the demographic diversity of the Latinx community, reviewing the history and growth of these communities. The bulk of the semester will focus on Latinx folk culture, pop culture, and cultural production. Topics may include curanderismo, carne asadas, quinceañeras, religion, music, movies, poetry, art, and novels.
Introduction to Latinx Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
The course will introduce students to modern Chicano literature written in English, and will provide necessary background for understanding more specialized courses in the area.
Introduction to Chicano Literature in English: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A general overview of the Chicano historical experience in the U.S.
Introduction to Chicano History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A critical analysis of the Latino political experience in the United States. The course compares and contrasts the ideologies, political organizations, and political leadership in the Mexican American, Cuban American, Puerto Rican, and Central American communities. The contemporary issues confronting Latinos are critically examined.
Latino Politics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Supervised independent field experience in the community relevant to specific aspects of Chicano studies.
Field Study in Chicano Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
Group study of selected topics which will vary from semester to semester.
Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual research by lower division students. Limited to freshmen and sophomores.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
For the last 30 years, the themes of identity and liberation have dominated the social ethic and religious thought of subaltern subjectivities in the Americas. The centrality of these ideas respond to the increasing awareness of and opposition to the legacies of the history of conquest, colonization, racism, and sexism in the region. In this course, we are going to study the intellectual production of various ethnic groups in the Americas, particularly Latinas and Latinos in the 20th century, in order to clarify the ties between concerns for cultural and religious identity and the articulation of alternative ethical and political visions.
Latina/o Philosophy and Religious Thought: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2023
A survey of Mexican and Chicano art from Mesoamerican period to contemporary Chicano art. Special focus on the mural movements and the relationship between artistic production and the development of Chicano symbols and cultural production.
Mexican and Chicano Art History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course examines contemporary Xicanx/Latinx artistic production, from early-1980s to the 2010s, through an examination of the historical, aesthetic and philosophical foundations of these artistic movements. Tracing the inspirations of contemporary Xicanx and Latinx art from the Chicana/o Art Movement and Latin American Contemporary Art to understand how the development of these movements were part of a political, cultural, and social revolution. Students will have the opportunity to take what they learn from lecture and discussion and work on an art project on campus.
Contemporary Xicanx/ Latinx Art Production: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The class focuses on the methods developed by Chicana/o artists in the 1970s to engage and maintain relationships in community as a way of keeping meXicana culture alive and growing in the US. This methodology uses art as a strategy of recovering Mexican cultural traditions to create sacred spaces rooted in the opposition to colonialism and as a strategy to understand and reflect on the resistance to assimilation, the implicit societal pressure to step away from tradition(s) and the relationships that are forged in the practice of these traditions.
Spirituality as Resistance The Politics of Day of the Dead in meXicana/o Art Practice and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Spring 2008, Spring 2007
What is Chicano music? When did it begin? Who are considered Chicano musicians? How has Chicano music changed in relationship to the historical changes in the Chicano community? How has Chicano music helped shape and been shaped by popular music and popular culture? How has Chicano music been a music accommodation and/or resistance? What role have Chicano artists/musicians played as cultural workers? Does Chicano music have a political agenda? How have Chicano artists and recording companies fared in the music industry? These are a few of the questions we will explore in this course. Course goals and objectives will be accomplished through readings, research, guest lectures, performance, film, and listening to Chicano music. Classroom discourse will be the key ingredient to the success of this course.
Chicano Music: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2018
This course examines narrative films primarily of the 1970s and 1980s that deal with the Latino/Chicano experience and the influences that shaped the views reflected in those cinematic works. Films produced in the U.S. and in Latin America will be encompassed in the course, as well as experimental and independent productions.
Latino Narrative Film: to the 1980s: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course examines major narrative films produced since the 1980s that deal with the Latino/Chicano experience and the influences that shaped the views reflected in those cinematic works. Films produced in the U.S. and in Latin America will be encompassed by the course.
Latino Narrative Film Since 1990: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
This course examines documentary films that are Latino-produced and/or Latino-based in content. The course will emphasize documentary film analysis and interpretation, taking into account the influences of both U.S. and Latin American cinema; alternative media, docudrama, pod-casts, and the like will also be discussed.
Latino Documentary Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
A critical and theoretical analysis of contemporary Chicana Writers and Chicana Feminist Discourse.
Chicana Feminist Writers and Discourse: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2011, Spring 2010
Critical analysis of the works of major Chicano Playwrights, Poets and Fiction Writers.
Major Chicano Writers: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
A study of the relationships and parallel aspects between Latin American and Chicano literature. Emphasis on the literature of protest as a constant underlying current from the Conquest to the present.
Chicano and Latin American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023
The course examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Latinxs in the United States. It draws primarily from the social sciences to explore U.S. Latinx experiences and identity across national origin groups, immigrant generations, and colonial time periods. Themes include conceptualizations of Spanish/American settler colonialism, the US Border, panethnicity, racialization and categorization of Latinos, immigration and deportation, social movements, and acculturation.
Latina/o/x Sociology: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025
This course is a survey of the literatures of Central American nations from contact to the present day. Born of out of violence the conquest, Central American republics have dealt with economic exploitation and political oppression. But Central Americans have also produced revolutionary ideas, radical art, and have shown determination and resilience in their desire for liberation. This class will explore the literary traditions of the region and of its diaspora in the United States and elsewhere. Books read in the class will
come from various forms and periods. Expect to read poetry, short stories, novels, memoirs, testimonio, and journalism.
Central American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021
The relationship between people of Mexican descent and American society from 1880 to the present.
History of the Southwest: Mexican-United States War to Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016
Latinas/os have long been the object of intellectual thought: they have been written about, they have been studied and quantified, and quite often not in positive terms. In this course, we will turn Latinas/os from objects of discourse to subjects of discourse, as active participants in intellectual thought. Our goal will be to explore how Latinas/os have reflected critically upon and written about their position as Latinas/os within the United States. In doing so, we will counter the general notion that Latina/o intellectual thought is, at best, a recent phenomenon or, at worst, non-existent.
The History of Latina/o Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course provides an overview of Mexican immigration to the United States. The relationship between immigration and Chicano community formation will be examined. Issues addressed include settlement patterns, socialization, educational aspiration, identity transformation, and historical changes.
Mexican Immigration: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A comparative survey of the peoples and cultures of the countries of the Central American Isthmus from a historical and contemporary perspective.
Central American Peoples and Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2012, Spring 2011, Fall 2004
A comparative survey of the peoples and cultures of the seven countries of the Central American Isthmus from a historical and contemporary perspective.
Central American Peoples and Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 1989
A critical examination of the role played by the United States in Central America from the 19th Century to the present. The focus will be on trends in U.S. policy, including an assessment of current policy alternatives in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the impact of those policies in Latinos in the United States.
The U.S. Role in Central America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2021
The main goal of this course is to offer a broad and comprehensive understanding of the Caribbean migration experience to the United States. We will cover crucial issues such as the migration origins, modes of incorporation, racism, cultural/identity strategies, and the political-economic relationship between the country of origin and the metropolitan host society. To understand the specificity of Caribbean migrants to the USA, it is fundamental to understand the regional Caribbean migration circuits to Western Europe. Thus, the course will provide a comparative perspective with Caribbean migrations to Western Europe.
Caribbean Migration to Western Europe and the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2016, Spring 2016
This course examines the contested formation of Cuban identity, where the questions of race and the relationship to the United States have constituted fundamental issues in the debate over the meaning of Cubanidad. The course will address the ways in which Cuba dealt with the issue of race and national identity after the revolution of 1959, as well as, for the Cuban emigre community in the United States. Issues of gender, class, and cultural expression will be crucial elements of analysis throughout the course.
Cuba, the United States and Cuban Americans: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
An examination of the historical and contemporary relationship between the educational system and the Mexican community in the United States; the history of schooling practices within the Mexican population as a backdrop to an examination of the current educational conditions of the Chicano students; the different historical trends in the education of Chicanos including alternative schools, bilingual education, school segregation, and higher education.
Chicanos and the Educational System: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
An examination of the development and function of law, the organization and administration of criminal justice, and their effects in the Chicano community; response to these institutions by Chicanos.
Chicanos, Law, and Criminal Justice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2023
This course will review various theories that explore the relationship between environmental drivers and
socio-economic outcomes as they relate to the Latinx community. In addition, the course will use case
studies to illustrate methodological approaches and topic specific impacts of environmental conditions on
socioeconomic outcomes. Topics such as climate change adaptation, agricultural labor chemical exposure,
access to clean water, the impact of education on environmental outcomes and others areas will be
explored. Environmental equity and justice will permeate and are fundamentally integrated in all topics as
they address the Latinx communities.
LATINX AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Relationship of the health care delivery system in the U.S. to the Chicano community. To include an examination and understanding of the concept of mental health as defined by Chicanos. Analysis of program alternatives and the Chicano response to health care problems and issues.
Chicanos and Health Care: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Topics in Latino/a-related art, history and contemporary issues, such as neighborhood development (e.g., Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, Mission district of San Francisco), mural arts movements, Spanish-language media, labor history, unionization efforts, immigration, demographic shifts, regional economic and/or social history, and transnational communities. Course topics will vary with the expertise of the particular instructor.
Topics in Chicano Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will introduce students to specific Chicana/Latina, Native, Asian, & African American art history and cultural practices developed as an essential aesthetic of art made by Artists of Color in the Bay Area. Focus is placed on the politics, ideas, and methods for working in community that are still viable and integral to current art practice with a commitment to social justice. The course will offer hands-on experience in community schools and organizations. Art experience welcome but not required.
Topics in Chicano Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2005 10 Week Session, Summer 2004 10 Week Session, Summer 2003 10 Week Session
This course, taught in Spain, is designed primarily to permit instructors to deal with topics with which they are especially concerned; subject matter usually is more restricted than that of a regular course.
Topics in Chicano Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Summer 2023 8 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
This study abroad course is designed primarily to permit instructors to deal with topics with which they are especially concerned; subject matter usually is more restricted than that of a regular course.
Selected Topics in Chicanx/Latinx Studies - Study Abroad: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Advanced seminar in Chicanx and Latinx Studies with topic to be announced at the beginning of each semester.
Advanced Seminar in Chicanx and Latinx Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017
The purpose of the Casa Magdalena Mora Seminar is to assist Casistas (i.e. Casa Mora residents) with their transition to student and academic life at UC Berkeley, and more importantly engage them in a critical and analytical dialogue and research for issues affecting Chican@ and Latin@ communities. This course is open to everyone.
Casa Mora Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The purpose of the Casa Magdalena Mora Seminar is to assist Casistas (i.e. Casa Mora residents) with their transition to student and academic life at UC Berkeley, and more importantly engage them in a critical and analytical dialogue and research for issues affecting Chican@ and Latin@ communities. This course is open to everyone.
Case Mora Theme Program Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Writing of a thesis under the direction of the member(s) of the faculty.
Senior Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Course for senior Chicano Studies majors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Chicano Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Chicano Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Course for senior Chicano Studies majors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Chicano Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Chicano Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Supervised fieldwork experience with campus and community organizations related to the vision and mission of Chicano Studies. This University organized and supervised field program is an opportunity for students to think critically about the work of engaged scholarship through their participation a variety of community-based activities and events. Students will be required to meet regularly with a faculty sponsor and submit a final project.
Field Study in Chicano Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
Directed group study in Chicano Studies for advanced students. Regular meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Independent work for advanced students in Chicano Studies. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
This course explores the role of "race" and ethnicity in the history of what became the Western United States from the Spanish invasion of the Southwest to contemporary controversies surrounding "race" in California. Rather than providing a continuous historical narrative, or treating each racialized "other" separately, the course works through a series of chronologically organized events in which issues of racial differences played key roles in creating what became a western identity.
A History of Race and Ethnicity in Western North America, 1598-Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2023
This explores the work of key theorists of race, ethnicity, and de-colonization whose work and ideas have formed the basis of scholarly work in the broad, interdisciplinary field of comparative ethnic studies. It is intended both to offer beginning students a ground in the ideas and methods they will encounter throughout their major, and to introduce names, texts, and concepts with which all majors should be familiar. This course satisfies the American cultures requirement.
Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
This explores the work of key theorists of race, ethnicity, and de-colonization whose work and ideas have formed the basis of scholarly work in the broad, interdisciplinary field of comparative ethnic studies. It is intended both to offer beginning students a ground in the ideas and methods they will encounter throughout their major, and to introduce names, texts, and concepts with which all majors should be familiar. This course satisfies the American cultures requirement.
Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022
Study of historical and contemporary issues in the field of Ethnic Studies, highlighting how the lived experiences of racial and ethnic groups in the past shape contemporary issues. Topics will vary from semester to semester, but may include topics such as pandemics, monuments, Black Lives Matter, social movements, immigration, and health disparities. Course topic will be posted to the online schedule of classes at the beginning of each term.
Historical and Contemporary Issues in Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2021
This survey course will examine the historical experiences of European immigrants, African Americans, and Latinos, emphasizing the themes of migration and economic change since the late 19th century. Though the class will focus on the three groups, the course will also address salient features of the experiences of Asian Americans, Native Americans, and recently arrived immigrants in light of the themes of the course. Intragroup differences such as class and gender will be discussed.
A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
We begin by asking why this course should exist in the university, what purpose it can serve, and how we might learn from past movements that have repurposed the university for their activist goals, or in the words of ‘Moten and Harney, “build fugitive study to contend and contest the capture of our intellectual lives”. We then build our analytical foundations of the ‘carceral core’, focusing on the logics which provide the political, socio-economic and philosophical roots of the carceral state.
An Introduction to Abolition Pedagogy and Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2019
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment iimited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
An introductory, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of Native American, Mexican American, African American, and Asian American social and political struggles from 1960 to the present. The course traces the development of protest movements created by people of color in response to racial, class, gender, and political inequality in the context of U.S. politics and history. The course critically examines the internal and external factors contributing to the rise and fall of social and political movements and concludes with an analysis of the current conjuncture of race, ethnicity, culture, class, gender, and sexual preference in U.S. politics.
A Comparative Survey of Protest Movements Since the 60's: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1998 10 Week Session
An introductory, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of Native American, Mexican American, African American, and Asian American social and political struggles from 1960 to the present. The course traces the development of protest movements created by people of color in response to racial, class, gender, and political inequality in the context of U.S. politics and history. The course critically examines the internal and external factors contributing to the rise and fall of social and political movements and concludes with an analysis of the current conjuncture of race, ethnicity, culture, class, gender, and sexual preference in U.S. politics.
A Comparative Survey of Protest Movements Since the 60's: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course examines the history of indigenous, aboriginal, native, or "tribal" peoples over the last five centuries. Particular attention is paid to how these groups were brought into relations with an expanding Europe, capitalist development, and modern nation-states. How have these peoples survived, what are the contemporary challenges they face, and what resources and allies have they drawn on in the present?
Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Summer 2015 10 Week Session
Supervised community field study.
Field Study in Communities of Color: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2016
Group study of selected topics which will vary from semester to semester.
Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.
Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual research on a topic which will lead to the writing of major paper. Regular meetings with the faculty sponsor. Limited to freshmen and sophomores.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Analysis of how selected works (poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and oral literature) reflect African American, Chicano, Asian American, and Native American consciousness and experiences.
Comparative Ethnic Literature in America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2008 10 Week Session, Summer 2008 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 1999 10 Week Session
Analysis of how selected works (poetry, short stories, novels, drama, and oral literature) reflect African-American, Chicano, Asian-American, and Native American consciousness and experiences.
Comparative Ethnic Literature in America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
The course provides an overview of social science methods used in ethnic studies fieldwork, archival research, oral histories, literature review, and critical theory. Particular attention is given to research design, forms of data, research presentation and analysis, and the ethical questions involved in doing research on communities of color. The course will emphasize presenting research in a clear, concise manner, and students will be expected to do a research practicum and present their work in writing on a regular basis.
Social Science Methods in Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
The course provides an introduction to basic theoretical approaches to the literary and other cultural productions of ethnic or "minority" communities in the United States. It also involves the study of important writings by Latina/o, Native American, African American, Asian American, and mixed race writers, and to a lesser degree, the visual art production of these same communities. The course will focus with particular care on discourses of racialization, gender, and sexuality.
Humanities Methods in Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2017, Summer 2012 First 6 Week Session
Designed primarily to give majors in Asian American studies, Chicano studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, and Native American studies elementary training in theoretical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity. Emphasis will be placed on writing and discussion. For a precise schedule of offerings, see department catalog during pre-enrollment week each semester.
Proseminar: Issues in the Fields of Ethnic Studies: Racialization and Empire: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2018, Spring 2016
Designed primarily to give majors in Asian American studies, Chicano studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, and Native American studies elementary training in theoretical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity. Emphasis will be placed on writing and discussion. For a precise schedule of offerings, see department catalog during pre-enrollment week each semester.
Proseminar: Issues in the Fields of Ethnic Studies: Ethnicity and the Narrative: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2020, Spring 2013
Designed primarily to give majors in Asian American studies, Chicano studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, and Native American studies elementary training in theoretical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity. Emphasis will be placed on writing and discussion. For a precise schedule of offerings, see department catalog during pre-enrollment week each semester.
Proseminar: Issues in the Fields of Ethnic Studies: Racialization and Contemporary Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2019, Spring 2015
Designed primarily to give majors in Asian American studies, Chicano studies, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, and Native American studies elementary training in theoretical approaches to the study of race and ethnicity. Emphasis will be placed on writing and discussion. For a precise schedule of offerings, see department catalog during pre-enrollment week each semester.
Proseminar: Issues in the Fields of Ethnic Studies: Racialization, Gender, and Popular Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
The depiction of race and ethnic relations in American films from the 1960s to the present. The course covers independent features as well as mainstream Hollywood studio films.
Ethnicity and Race in Contemporary American Films: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2019, Fall 2011
Course focuses on the production of sexualities, sexual identification, and gender differentiation across multiple discourses and locations.
Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2011
Course focuses on the production of sexualities, sexual identification, and gender differentiation across multiple discourses and locations.
Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2023
This course explores key concepts and thinkers associated with Queer of Color Critique, its historical formation within the United States as well as its global application. A goal of this course is for students to develop a critical language for engaging with difficult theoretical texts related to racialized gender and sexuality and to think through the tensions, possibilities, and implications of the different ideas presented. In addition to theoretical texts, this course will explore various forms of cultural production, including fiction, creative nonfiction, art, performance, music, and film. Students will use concepts and ideas from class to craft independent research projects related to the themes of the course.
Queer of Color Critique: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2019
How and why did American society become racially and ethnically diverse? This comparative study of racial minorities and European immigrant groups examines selected historical developments, events, and themes from the 17th century to the present.
The Making of Multicultural America: A Comparative Historical Perspective: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2007 10 Week Session, Summer 2007 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2006 10 Week Session
A comparative and historical study of racial inequality from 1600 to the present. Readings and lectures will focus on white racial attitudes and the subordination of Afro-Americans, Asians, Chicanos, and Native Americans within the context of American society and culture.
Racial Inequality in America: A Comparative Historical Analysis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session
The myth, reality and history of U.S. immigration. This course discusses issues raised by the recent immigration in a comparative, historical approach. An examination of theories, politics, and policy of U.S. immigration restriction.
Contemporary U.S. Immigration: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019
This course is designed to allow students to delve into the topic of migration in the contemporary world. Readings, discussions, and assignments will focus on 1) past and present immigration to California and beyond 2) the impact of immigration in relation to labor, health and the environment and 3) contemporary immigrant activism and organizing. A primary goal of the course is to utilize sociocultural theories to describe the experiences of immigrants in the U.S. Students will communicate what they are learning through discussions, weekly reading reflection, academic papers, and an Op-Ed. A variety of teaching methods will be employed including lectures, discussions and guest presentations (authors and indiviudals featured in books).
Migration in the Contemporary World: California and Beyond: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2014 Second 6 Week Session
Examines patterns of women's immigration to the U.S. in specific socio-historical and cultural contexts. Special attention to race, ethnic, and identity issues from woman-centered analysis and methodology.
Immigrant Women: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2004, Spring 2003
A critical and comparative analysis of contemporary politics and issues affecting Mexican American/Latino, Native American, Asian American, and African American communities in the United States.
Racial Politics in America: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Intensive histori-legal survey of racism in the United States, exploring the legal antecedents of the country's contemporary stratified society, and emphasizing the role of law as a social policy instrument. Readings and lectures will investigate the prevailing legal currency of racism in the United States through an examination of the country's formative legal documents and the consequent effects of a myriad of judicial decisions on peoples of color.
Racism and the U.S. Law: Historical Treatment of Peoples of Color: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2007 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Summer 2005 10 Week Session
A comparative examination of the historical treatment of the four major groups of color under United States law. Some contemporary issues are also examined. The experiences of individuals and groups under repressive law and how communities resist such laws and policies are other considerations. Students will study landmark case law and legislation dealing with race-based issues and critical theoretical discourses concerning race and law in the U.S.
Racism and the U.S. Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
A comparative analysis of religion as practiced by Latinos, Blacks, Asians and Native Americans and of the interplay of ethnicity and religion.
Religion and Ethnicity: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2013 Second 6 Week Session
Examines the history and contemporary situations of Chicana/Latina, African American, Asian American and Native American Women. Conceptual focus will draw on lived experiences and theoretical constructs of race, class and gender.
Women of Color in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Examines the history and contemporary situations of Chicana/Latina, African American, Asian American and Native American Women. Conceptual focus will draw on lived experiences and theoretical constructs of race, class, and gender.
Women of Color in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1997 10 Week Session, Summer 1996 10 Week Session
Examines the history and contemporary situations of Chicana/Latina, African American, Asian American, and Native American women. Conceptual focus will draw on lived experiences and theoretical constructs of race, class, and gender.
Women of Color in the United States: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
Deals with phenomenon of people of mixed-race descent, focusing on United States but with reference to other nations for comparative purposes. Includes historical perspective as well as exploring the psychology, sociology, literature, and cinema pertaining to topic.
People of Mixed Racial Descent: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
The southern border--from California to Florida--is the longest physical divide between the First and Third Worlds. This course will examine the border as a distinct landscape where North-South relations take on a specific spatial and cultural dimension, and as a region which has been the testing ground for such issues as free trade, immigration, and ethnic politics.
The Southern Border: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020
This course provides a broad, inter-disciplinary overview of the U.S. labor movement in the fight for social and economic justice. It will introduce students to critiques of racial capitalism and the power dynamics inherent in paid work, while considering why and how workers form unions in response. One of the primary objectives of this course is to develop a theoretical and analytical understanding of contemporary workers’ experiences of work in the U.S. shaped by race, class, gender, sexuality, immigration status, language, religion, and other social constructs. There will be a special comparative focus on the role of structures and the space for agency and mobilization in the Latinx, Black and Asian American communities.
Work, Justice and the Labor Movement: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023
This course is an introduction to social science research methods that center principles of equity and justice connecting the Berkeley Changemaker L&S 12 to the discipline of public policy in the field of work and employment relations. It is based on the premise that the COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to reshape the economy for a fair, inclusive, and democratic society with the participation of people typically excluded from policy development. Currently, young workers are at the helm of transforming the labor market by leading union organizing at workplaces. This course examines the position, attitudes, and interests of young workers through the lens of critical race theory, feminist and queer theory, and disability justice.
Berkeley Changemaker: Labor Research for Action and Policy (L-RAP): Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
This course examines the history of indigenous, aboriginal, native, or "tribal" peoples over the last five centuries. Particular attention is paid to how these groups were brought into relations with an expanding Europe, capitalist development, and modern nation-states. How have these peoples survived, what are the contemporary challenges they face, and what resources and allies have they drawn on in the present?
Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course comprises extensive analyses of the ways in which American ethnic writers engage ontologies of self in characters who attempt to move beyond and out of the existential panic of being seen before they are seen. The direction of the course will move from the promise of Americanness, (i.e., Romanticist notions of self) in traditional American literary works to the legislated self in works by writers of color to modernist and postmodernist pastiche by various ethnic American writers.
Existential Panic in American Ethnic Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Comparative survey of literature and cultural production from, and reflective of Ethnic Movement eras, particularly, but not limited to, those of the sixties. Representative literatures include Asian American, Chicano, African American, and Native American.
Literature from Ethnic Movements: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Comparative survey of art and other cultural production from a cross-section of selected American ethnic groups (in general, Asian American, Chicano, African American, and Native American). We approach works from various critical/theoretical perspectives, often constructing them as we analyze, and through the lens of Ethnic Studies.
Against the Grain: Ethnic American Art and Artists: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Students will examine social dynamics as well as cultural and intellectual productions by or about communities of color nationally and internationally from different methodological perspectives.
Selected Topics in Comparative Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session
Students will examine the fundamental interconnections between race and the law within and beyond the U.S. from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. Possible course topics include The Carceral State; Race and Immigration; Social Movements and the Law; Citizenship; Indigenous Legal Systems; Law and Literature; and Race, Environmental Justice and the Law.

Selected Topics in Race and the Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Summer 2023 10 Week Session, Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session
This study abroad course is designed primarily to permit instructors to deal with topics with which they are especially concerned; subject matter usually is more restricted than that of a regular course.
Selected Topics in Comparative Ethnic Studies - Study Abroad: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2020, Spring 2017
This course introduces students to the long history of the prison in the American experience, and does so by engaging ideas, movements, and practices to craft worlds of care and mutuality beyond the harms that the prison produces and legitimates. Taking a broad interdisciplinary approach, the course engages with the full range of “carceral geographies” in which social life is penetrated with the state’s power to surveil, arrest, judge, and punish its citizens; as well as the “abolition geographies” that, in Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s terms, combine resources, creativity, and commitment to create freedom as a place where all life/lives are precious.
Prison Abolition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Taking a broad interdisciplinary approach, this course embraces the longue duree of critical prison studies, questioning the shadows of normality that cloak mass incarceration both across the globe and, more particularly, in the contemporary United States. This course thus explores a series of visceral, unsettling juxtapositions: "freedom" and "slavery"; "citizenship" and "subjugation"; "marginalization" and "inclusion", in each case explicating the ways that story making, political demagoguery, and racial, class, and sexual inequalities have wrought an untenable social condition.
Prison: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course will critically examine the complex relationship between race, rights, and citizenship. We will closely review contemporary laws on immigration, national security, voting rights, language access and affirmative action, and their associated social contexts and legal conflicts around racial profiling, education access, and citizenship rights. Citizenship rights are understood broadly in this class from “alienage” (the hierarchical demarcation of non-citizen versus citizen) to the right to marriage. A primary focus of this course is to understand how despite discrimination, outsiders have gained access to “insider” rights and in the process have naturalized what previously was considered out of the norm.

Race, Rights, and Citizenship: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024
This course examines the history of indigenous, aboriginal, native, or "tribal" peoples over the last five centuries. Particular attention is paid to how these groups were brought into relations with an expanding Europe, capitalist development, and modern nation-states. How have these peoples survived, what are the contemporary challenges they face, and what resources and allies have they drawn on in the present?
Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
In addition to class meetings, an extra assignment/research component will be added to the course to increase contact hours with students. Possible components include additional readings, outside-of-class research projects, and any other project which the instructor feels will add to the value of the course. Topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.
Advanced Seminar in Comparative Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
For a four unit course, an extra assignment/research component will be added to the course to increase contact hours with students. Possible components include additional readings, outside-of-class research projects and any other project which the instructor feels will add to the value of the course. Topics to be announced at the beginning of each semester.
Advanced Seminar in Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2011 10 Week Session, Summer 2010 10 Week Session
This study abroad course is designed primarily to permit instructors to deal with topics with which they are especially concerned; subject matter usually is more restricted than that of a regular course.
Advanced Seminar in Comparative Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Using a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, students will examine topics central to student academic success in higher education. Possible course topics include Successful Transition to a Research 1 University, Honing Upper Division Writing Skills, Developing as Researcher, and Preparing for Graduate/Professional School.
Topics in Student Academic Success: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course will provide incoming transfer students--especially first-generation, non-traditional students--an opportunity to engage in self-exploration and engage in processes central to completing research. Students will locate their academic passion and gain a better understanding of their major department. The course will focus on key strategies of the research process: developing a research question/thesis, methodology, and research writing. Students will practice a range of academic strategies, including critical reading, analytical writing, and oral presentation. Additionally, students will learn about the structure and function of a Research 1 university so they can better situate themselves in and negotiate the academic terrain.
Developing as a Researcher: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course is designed for incoming transfer students--especially first-generation, non-traditional students--to facilitate their transition to and success at UC Berkeley.
Transfer Transition Course: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Fall 2008, Spring 2008
Doing research on issues in U.S. communities of color. Students will examine theories of society and do research on topics from different methodological perspectives. Issues will vary from semester to semester.
Selected Issues in Comparative Ethnic Studies Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Writing of a thesis under the direction of member(s) of the faculty.
Senior Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
Course for senior Ethnic Studies majors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Ethnic Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Ethnic Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Course for senior Ethnic Studies majors designed to support and guide the writing of a senior honors thesis. For senior Ethnic Studies majors who have been approved for the honors program.
Senior Honors Thesis for Ethnic Studies Majors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Summer 2015 10 Week Session
Supervised fieldwork experience with campus and community organizations related to the vision and mission of Ethnic Studies. This University organized and supervised field program is an opportunity for students to think critically about the work of engaged scholarship through their participation a variety of community-based activities and events. Students will be required to meet regularly with a faculty sponsor and submit a final project.
Field Study in Ethnic Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This seminar provides students a space to critically reflect on their community field study work as ethnic studies scholars.
Love, Study, Struggle: An Ethnic Studies Community Grounded Learning Lab: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021
This fieldstudy course is designed for undergraduates/graduates who have an interest in social/economic justice, and seek to earn academic credit while gaining exp in organizing. Building upon the Labor Center’s Summer program, it allows students to apply existing organizing skills/acquire new knowledge in community and labor organizations. Students will be matched with our community partners that promote the interests of Bay area working families. Classroom-based guided reflection, skills development, career information, and engagement with current debates will complement the fieldwork. This exp can open the door to life-long careers as organizers, researchers, policy analysts, political lobbyists, communication specialists and leaders.
Field Study in Labor Organizing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Group study of selected topics which will vary from semester to semester.
Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend lectures and panel discussions featuring department faculty and alumni, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate.

Berkeley Connect: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
Individual research on a topic which leads to the writing of major paper. Regular meetings with the faculty sponsor.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
This practicum is an applied research training course that accompanies PUBPOL 160AC Work, Justice, and the Labor Movement and connects the Berkeley Changemaker L&S 12 to the discipline of public policy. It is designed to provide a robust training in research methods and community engagement with worker organizations to inform policies for a fair, inclusive, and democratic society. The practicum integrates elements of quantitative and qualitative research methods in a semester-long service-learning project in partnership with a worker organization. Students will work in teams to collect and analyze data thematically, and learn to use digital tools to disseminate the research findings to various audiences.
Berkeley Changemaker: Labor Research for Action and Policy (L-RAP): Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2022
This course introduces students to the genres of Native American literature (written and oral traditions), provides historical and cultural frameworks for understanding, appreciating, and interpreting Native American writings, and develops basic skills in expository and creative writing. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Native American Studies Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Course examines Native American written and oral traditions in historical and cultural contexts. Emphasis on literary interpretation and creative and analytical writing, so that students increasingly write from positions of strength. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.
Native American Studies Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course explores the interactions, from friendship treaties and land deals to contemporary American governmental policies, between America's original inhabitants with Europeans and Euro-Americans. Emphasis will be placed on how tribal peoples continue to react to the national myths and policies created by Europeans and Euro-Americans.
Introduction to Native American Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course explores Native American identify practices in written and oral traditions in literature, art, dance, theatre, ceremony, and song. The place of these traditions in the contemporary day will be emphasized as creative struggles for maintaining and elaborating on Indian identity in the context of colonialism.
Introduction to Native American Studies II: Cultural Practice, Art, and Identity: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
The course presents a diachronic perspective on human-fire interactions with local ecosystems in California that spans over 10,000 years. The course will provide an historical perspective on human-fire interactions at the landscape scale using a diverse range of data sources drawn from the fields of fire ecology, biology, history, anthropology, and archaeology. An important component includes examining how diverse cultures and ethnicity influenced how people perceived and used fire at the landscape scale in ancient, historical and modern times. The implications of these diverse fire practices and policies will be analyzed and the consequences they have had for transforming habitats and propagating catastrophic fires will be explored.
Fire: Past, Present and Future Interactions with the People and Ecosystems of California: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2013
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester.
Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023
The purpose of this course is to examine Native American societies, political systems, and human-environment relationships within CA and the U.S. This survey of Native American history will provide context for modern issues in land and resource management and government-to-government relationships between tribes and local, state, and federal agencies. Special attention will be given to the CA region, as there are many aspects of CA that make it an exceptional or unique case within the larger US historical narrative. Recurring themes or core concepts discussed throughout the course will include climate change, cultural and environmental impacts from colonialism,Indigenous persistence, stewardship, cultural landscapes, and tribal sovereignty.
History of Native American Land, Colonialism, and Heritage Preservation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course is for people who want to learn a Native American language, understood to include any of the hundreds of indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America. Since most of these languages are not taught in the usual formal educational settings, a major emphasis of the course is helping students develop strategies for self-directed language learning and effective teaching methods to help others learn as well. The course will also provide a basic introduction to principles of linguistic analysis that will make materials developed by specialists more accessible and useful to learners.

Working with Grammar: Linguistic Tools for Learning and Teaching a Native American Language: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An ethnohistorical analysis of America's original inhabitants and their interactions with Europeans and Euro-Americans emphasizing an Indian perspective.
Native Americans in North America to 1900: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A survey and analysis of issues affecting Native Americans in the 20th and 21st centuries. Course will explore political, economic, and social/cultural developments as they shape federal-Indian relations and tribal sovereignty.
Native Americans in North America 1900-Present: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course examines the history of indigenous, aboriginal, native, or "tribal" peoples over the last five centuries. Particular attention is paid to how these groups were brought into relations with an expanding Europe, capitalist development, and modern nation-states. How have these peoples survived, what are the contemporary challenges they face, and what resources and allies have they drawn on in the present?
Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
The course will introduce students to different ways of understanding the history of American Indians and to basic resources and research methods for studying the history of Indian tribes.
Freshman Seminar--Myth, Memory and History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual conferences to be arranged. Supervised experiences relevant to specific aspects of the Native American community in off-campus settings. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Field Work in Native American Communities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Supervised research by lower division students.
Supervised Group Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Individual conferences to be arranged. The individual student, with consent and guidance of an instructor, researches an interest not covered in the courses offered in the Program.
Supervised Independent Study and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
Historical background of the unique relationship between the United States government and Native American tribes, and examination of contemporary legislation, court cases, and federal, state, and local policies affecting Native American social, political, legal, and economic situations.
Native American Law: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
The roles of tribal governments in the formation of internal and external policies affecting the lives of Native American people, the basis for their political power historically and in contemporary society, and their structure and functions.
Native American Tribal Governments: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Key contemporary issues in the critical study of tribal and federal policy pertaining to American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. Topics include political and cultural sovereignty; religious, gendered, sexual, racial, and other tribal minorities, and civil rights within tribes; Native legal identity and tribal enrollment; the role of violence against women in the history of colonialism, and the struggle for justice and healing; and the movement for traditional or other culturally appropriate forms for tribal self-governance.
Critical Native American Legal and Policy Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course addresses how Indigenous communities throughout the Americas deal with their contemporary political dilemmas. It explores the ways in which internal colonialism, projects of assimilation, political and economic marginalization, land loss, and resistance have affected how Indigenous people view themselves in relationship to the dominant societies in which they reside. It explores local differences, attentive to the specificity of the national or regional dimension of “the Indian Problem.” And it examines the varied and often complementary tactics that Indigenous people take in their pursuit of political and cultural self-determination.
Indigenous Issues Across the Americas: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
Overview of literary theory and criticism, historiography, and social sciences theories and methods useful in the study of Native American literature, history and contemporary tribal groups. Course will develop skills of information gathering and development of theories that structure information.
Theories and Methods in Native American Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2008, Spring 2008
This course explores the practice of Native American art forms from the perspective of Native American Artists and scholars. Focused on specific art forms such as dance, music, film, crafts, and other traditions, this course provides a critique of conventional understandings of the relationships of Native American cultural traditions and their place in the world of "art."
Topics in Native American Arts: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course explores the development of photography, historical photographs of Indigenous peoples, Black Indians, and the push to win the American West. Central to the course are research methods that deconstruct stereotypical representations of Native Americans, African Americans (who either married into Native nations, were owned by Native peoples, or who joined the military to fight Native peoples), and the theories and methods that influenced photography.
Photography and the American Indian: Manifest Destiny, American Frontier, and Images of American Indians: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2013, Spring 2012
This course explores the ways in which an invented, generic "Indian" has played a variety of roles in master narratives of United States history. We shall examine changes in images of key figures and events constituting "our" collective historical memory.
Images of Native Americans in American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course examines gender roles from the period before the invasion to the present. An emphasis will be placed on the ways in which contact with European gender practices transformed those prevalent in Native North American before the conquest.
Gender in Native American Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2019, Fall 2017
This workshop provides intensive study of the crafts of writing in relation to various Native American genres as well as writing and discussion of student work.
Native American Narratives: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
A study of the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of Native American world views, with emphasis on systems of knowledge, explanations of natural phenomena, and relations of human beings to nature through ritual and ceremonial observances.
Native American Philosophy: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
An analysis of the written and oral tradition developed by Native Americans. Emphasis will be placed on a multifaceted approach (aesthetic, linguistic, psychological, historical, and cultural) in examining American Indian literature.
Native American Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
This course will analyze the sociological, psychological, and literary aspects of Hollywood moviemakers' stereotyping of the American Indian through the history of film. The format will include representative Indian films, lectures, and guest speakers from the movie industry.
Native Americans and the Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1997 10 Week Session, Summer 1996 10 Week Session
This course will analyze the sociological, psychological, and literary aspects of Hollywood moviemakers' stereotyping of the American Indian through the history of film. The format will include representative Indian films, lectures, and guest speakers from the movie industry.
Native Americans and the Cinema: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1999 10 Week Session
This course considers Maya traditions as performance, oral literature, and creative resource which informs the present and the future. The course will illustrate the ways Maya mythic narratives are tied and untied in Maya cultural histories and geographies with close attention to contemporary use of the 260-day sacred calendar, creation accounts, ceremony, and the publically emergent role of the AjQ'ijab, the spiritual leaders.
Maya Traditions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 3 Week Session, Summer 1999 10 Week Session
This course is a survey of contemporary Native American Indian art from the 19th century to the present. The general philosophical foundations of traditional tribal arts and culture will be discussed in the first week of the course. The second and third week of the course contemporary art will be studied through selected readings, slide presentations, and other reproductions of painting and sculpture by Native American Indian artists.
Native American Art: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1999 10 Week Session
This course is a general survey of competing environmental interests of Native American Indians. Sacred sites and stewardship of the environment will be discussed in the first week. The legacy of radioactive waste disposal on tribal land will be studied in the second week of the course. Lectures in the third week will consider mining and the pollution of air and water on treaty reservations.
Native American Environments: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1999 10 Week Session
This course will consider Native American Indian ceremonies through the introductory examination of diverse religious beliefs, practices, and performances. Among the topics discussed will be the role of healing practices, revitalization movements, and religious changes in tribal communities in North America. The lectures will compare various tribal philosophies and world views in the context of culture and history.
Native American Ceremonies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1999 10 Week Session
This introductory course will compare the general cultural themes and political histories of Native American Indians in California. The lectures in the first week of the course will consider demographic studies and the diversity of tribal cultures. The second week will review colonial dominance, mission activities, assimilation policies, and relations with the United States government. In the third week discussions will focus on the general political issues of tribal casinos in California.
Native Americans of California: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 1999 10 Week Session
Native American Indians have been the cultural objects of photographers and the exotic figures of filmmakers for more than a century. Lectures in the first week will critique the images of Native American Indians in photographs. The second week will focus on selected scenes in motion pictures. General theories of simulation, historical and ethnographic representations will be considered in the third week. Students will read selected essays and view slides and scenes from films.
Native American Images: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2000 10 Week Session
This course will compare the general cultural themes and political histories of Native American Indian warrior cultures of the North American Great Plains, with an emphasis on the diversity of traditional cultural roles.
Plains Warriors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2000 10 Week Session
This course will explore the unique legal status of Native American Indian tribes and reservation lands in the United States, including discussions of treaties, federal trust relationships, and the evolution of laws and policies that determine sovereignty.
Native American Sovereignty: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2000 10 Week Session
This course considers the health of Native American Indian communities past and present. The lectures will be comparative and explore medical public health issues in urban areas and on reservations.
Medicine and Public Health: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course will examine the cultural history and contemporary political dynamics of First Nations in Canada. The lectures will focus on early encounters with natives recorded in , and on recent land claims and the Nunavut treaty.
First Nations in Canada: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Spring 2022
This course examines the history of indigenous, aboriginal, native, or "tribal" peoples over the last five centuries. Particular attention is paid to how these groups were brought into relations with an expanding Europe, capitalist development, and modern nation-states. How have these peoples survived, what are the contemporary challenges they face, and what resources and allies have they drawn on in the present?
Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
Since time immemorial, the North American West has been the home of indigenous peoples. The rich environmental landscapes hosted some of the most diverse communities in the history of the
world. But since the arrival of Europeans, it’s been a region of conflict and contestation. This course offers a historical and contemporary analysis of indigenous peoples in the American West. It will
survey pre-contact indigenous communities of the region, address the enduring legacies of settler colonialism and westward expansion, and highlight the recent successes of tribal communities in
revitalizing and reclaiming traditional lands and cultural practices.
Indigenous Peoples and the North American West: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
History of the Native Americans of California with emphasis on the lifeways, mores, warfare, and relations with the United States government. Attention will be given to the background and evolution of acculturation up to the present.
History of Native Americans in California: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2012, Spring 2011
An historical analysis of the Native American Nations of the southwestern United States.
History of Native Americans in the Southwest: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
This course explores the history of Native Americans from the point of view of Native American historians and scholars. Focused on specific periods and regional case studies the course provides a rereading of much United States history as it has been conceived, set into periods, written, and taught. The chronological scope of the course begins before the European invasions and continues to the end of the 20th century.
Topics in Native American History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2010, Fall 2009, Fall 2008
This seminar will explore the intersections of Native American and African American histories and communities in the context of the United States which was formerly "Indian Country." We will read historical texts, first-person accounts, fiction, and primary documents primarily from the perspective of Native American, African American, and Black-Indian scholars and writers.
Africans in Indian Country: Read More [+]