Academics

The program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration

Our program enables students to engage in interdisciplinary, comparative study of forces that have created a multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial world. The major emphasizes familiarity with the intellectual traditions and debates surrounding the concepts of indigeneity, ethnicity, nationality, and race; grounding in both the history of migration and its contemporary manifestations; and knowledge of and direct engagement with the cultures, structures, and peoples formed by these migrations.  

Prospective majors must consult the director of undergraduate studies early in their academic careers to discuss an individual plan of study and obtain permission to enroll in the major prior to the fall semester of their junior year.  The director of undergraduate studies will make sure that all prospective majors have completed proper preparatory coursework as freshman and sophomores.

Requirements of the major

Students must complete twelve term courses in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, including the senior requirement. There are no prerequisites.

Students must complete twelve term courses in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, including the senior requirement. These twelve normally include ER&M 200, an introductory course on the issues and disciplines involved in the study of ethnicity, race, and migration. In the junior year, all majors are required to take ER&M 300, a seminar that introduces majors to scholarship in ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies.

Introductory course

ER&M 200 offers a transnational introductory course on the issues and disciplines involved in the study of ethnicity, race, and migration. Students interested in the major should take this course early in their studies, preferably during their first two years in preparation for more advanced work in the junior seminar.

Area of concentration

In consultation with the DUS, each student defines an area of concentration consisting of six term courses, one of which must be a methods course; these concentration courses do not include the senior essay or project.

Advanced work in the foreign language related to a student’s area of concentration is advised. 

Junior requirement

Students must take the ERM Junior Seminar in Comparative Ethnic Studies (ER&M 300) an introductory theory and methods course that immerses incoming majors in the overlapping scholarship of ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies that have critically shaped the study of indigeneity, race, ethnicity and migration in the U.S. and around the globe.  Because of the major’s emphasis on international and transnational work, students are also encouraged to undertake a semester abroad.  Students should consult with the director of undergraduate studies to identify courses from study abroad programs that may count towards the major.

Senior requirement

There are two options for the senior requirement. Majors may choose a year-long senior essay or project and take the senior colloquium (ER&M 491) on theoretical and methodological issues in the fall and then complete the requirement by writing a senior essay in the senior project seminar (ER&M 492) during the spring term.

Alternatively, students may take two upper-level ER&M seminars and write a 20-25 page senior essay in one of these seminars, while completing all course requirements.

Finally, all students will take two additional electives to complete the twelve courses.

See YCPS for more details.

Undergraduate-At-A-Glance

REQUIREMENTS OF THE MAJOR

Prerequisites None

Number of courses 12 term courses (including senior requirement )

Specific courses required ER&M 200300

Distribution of courses 6 courses in area of concentration, 1 of which must be a methods course.

Senior requirement Senior colloq (ER&M 491) and senior essay or project ER&M 492; or two upper-level ER&M seminars and write a 30-35 page senior essay in one of these seminars.