Diversity Requirement Revision

Academic Year (AY) 2011–2012 (and prior) Diversity Outside of the Perspectives Curriculum

Goals

Emerson's curriculum emphasizes a global perspective and prepares students to work and live in an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world. Graduating students will have a basic understanding of the cultural pluralism of American society and of the world at large. Through course in "Global and U.S. Diversity," students gain an understanding of the historical, artistic, and/or political contexts of cultural traditions and an appreciation of the value of diversity itself as a democratic and intellectual strength.

Outcomes

Global

• Interpret primary materials within their relevant historical and critical contexts, as well as their relevance to contemporary life.
• Produce written scholarly analyses of the cultural material studied.

US

• Recognize the unique contributions of groups historically disempowered in the United States.
• Interpret primary materials within their relevant historical and critical contexts, as well as their relevance to contemporary life.
• Produce written scholarly Analyses of the cultural materials studied.

AY 2012–2013; 2013–2014; 2014–2015: Diversity Brought Within the Perspectives Curriculum

Goals

Global

Courses in this perspective emphasize a global perspective and help prepare students to work and live in an increasingly interconnected and multicultural world.

US

Courses in this perspective foster an understanding of the cultural pluralism of American society and focus on understanding of the historical, artistic, and/or political contexts of cultural traditions and an appreciation of the value of diversity itself as a democratic and intellectual strength.

AY 2015–2016; 2016–2017: (Partial) Revision of Diversity Goals

Goals

Courses in this perspective emphasize multicultural understanding, global perspectives, and the values of social justice and responsibility as crucial preparation for life and work in the contemporary world.

AY 2017–2018 New Goals and Outcomes: Completed

Goals

Global

Global Diversity courses foster global engagement though a critical examination of the multiple perspectives and experiences within diverse cultures and societies in their historical, contemporary, and transnational contexts.

US

U.S. Diversity courses foster an understanding of the connections between the multiple voices, experiences, and contributions made by historically underrepresented groups, and economic, cultural, and socio-political power and inequality in the United States.

Outcomes

Global

• Critically reflect on one's place in, and knowledge of, the world.
• Examine how economic, geo-political, and/or socio-cultural histories inform contemporary perspectives and experiences.
• Investigate how diverse cultures and societies are shaped both on their own terms and through transnational and globalized forms of exchange.

US

• Consider the multiple voices, experiences, and contributions of groups historically underrepresented in the U.S. and the enduring legacies of such underrepresentation.
• Examine how systems of oppression and modes of resistance operate at individual and structural levels.
• Interrogate the intersections among distinct, yet overlapping, forms of oppression, such as:
  • Racism,
  • Sexism,
  • Classism,
  • Homophobia, and
  • Ableism

Diversity Requirement Revision Final Report (February 2019)

Process

In Fall 2016, after the student protests in April 2016, the Liberal Arts Council (LAC) created a Diversity Requirement sub-committee to assess and update the Diversity Perspective. Work commenced with revision of the curricular goals and student learning outcomes for both US Diversity and Global Diversity courses. This was a broadly participatory process that asked, in short, what do we want these courses to achieve? We invited student representatives from POWER and SGA to dialogue with us around this question. The conversation took time and involved the Institute, Liberal Arts Council, student representatives from POWER and SGA, all seven Departments, and the UCC. Once the new goals and outcomes were approved in Fall 2016, faculty on the LAC Diversity Requirement sub-committee commenced with review of individual courses in Spring 2017 to assess whether or not they met the new, more narrowly tailored goals and outcomes.

For courses where it wasn’t clear from the syllabi whether or not they met the new goals and outcomes, the Subcommittee contacted either the Chair of the Department where the course is run or the faculty member who teaches it (or both) and asked for further elaboration and, in some cases, specific revisions. One year was given to revise and resubmit for a second review by March 16, 2018. Six courses were afforded a longer timetable due to a gap in communication during Fall 2017. The deadline for these six was November 30, 2018. Faculty had the right to not engage this process and continue to run their existing course(s) without the Diversity designation.

Outcomes

Below are existing courses approved against the new goals/outcomes:

Note: 15 US/Global Diversity courses were removed due to the faculty member’s and/or Department Chair’s request, or the sub-committee’s judgment that the course wasn’t sufficiently aligned with the new goals and outcomes.

** New courses approved against the new goals/outcomes

Global Diversity

55 courses were approved as meeting the new goals and outcomes, including 24 new courses — either new to the College curriculum or never before considered for the Global Diversity curriculum.

• CC203 Intercultural Communication
• **CC290 Global Communication and Cultural Immersion: The Culture and Language of Provence
• **CC2XX Communication and Cultural Identity in a Global perspective: The Netherlands
• DA203 Perspectives in World Dance
• **HI200 Contemporary World History
• **HI201 Africa, Asia and the Middle East in Popular History
• HI204 Islam in the World
• **HI240 Topics in World History
• **HI2XX Radical Women in Contemporary World History
• **HI310 Demystifying Revolutionaries
• **HI340 Advanced Topics in World History
• IN203 Postcolonial Cultures
• **IN208 Rainbow Nation?
• **IN209 Women Warriors of Latin America
• IN210 Topics in Global Studies
• **IN211 Africana Thought and Practice
• IN213 Introduction to Global Studies
• **IN235 The Arab Uprisings
• IN236 Global Revolts and the Crisis of Neoliberalism
• **IN/VM301 Postcolonial Cinema
• IN304 Encountering Africa on Page and Screen
• **IN307 Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East
• **IN310 Worldwide Underground: Hip Hop as Resistance around the Globe
• IN321 Asian Pacific Film and Literature
• IN322 Food and Globalization
• IN325 Race, Space and Power
• IN335 500 Years of Globalization
• **IN360 Barcelona: Visual Art, Theatre and Culture
• IN370 Advanced Topics in Global Studies
• IN370/LI311: Belfast
• **IN421 Key Contemporary Thinkers: Fanon
• LI211 Topics in Global Literature
• LI213 Latin American Literature and Cinema
• **LI310 Advanced Topics in Latin American Literature
• **LI311 Topics in Global Literature
• **LI324 Latin American Short Fiction
• LI381 Global Literature
• LI396 International Women Writers
• LI423 Topics in Global Literature
• **LI424 Imagining the Caribbean
• **IN361 Global Media Literacy
• MU203 Perspectives in World Music
• PL222 Human Rights
• PL230 US-Latin America
• PL322 Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
• **PL410 Collective Action and Identity Politics
• RL115 Islamic Ways of Life
• SO305 Religion and Globalization
• TH203 Perspectives in World Theatre
• VM214 East Asian Arts
• VM215 South Asian Arts
• VM280 Global Media
• **VM311 Latin American Cinema
• VM410 Seminar in Non-Western Art
• VM418 Transnational Asian Cinemas

US Diversity

34 courses were approved as meeting the new goals and outcomes, including 17 new courses — either new to the College curriculum or never before considered for the US Diversity curriculum.

• **CD153 Disability and the Media
• **CD193 Introduction to Communication Disorders
• **HS101/102 Honors First Year Seminar
• HI203 Social Movements in the U.S.
• HI211 African American History
• **IN200 Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
• IN211 Africana Thought and Practice
• IN223 Blacks, Whites, and Blues
• **IN230 Evolution of Queer Identity
• **IN310 Gender, Sexuality and the American Music Industry
• **IN316 War on Drugs
• **IN319 Feminist Cultural Theory
• **IN3XX/VM309 Reel Race: In and Out of Hollywood
• **IN3XX LA Underrepresented: Social Justice and the City
• **IN406 Queer Dreams
• **IN423 Key Contemporary Thinkers: DuBois
• LI208 US Multicultural Literature
• LI209 Topics in US Multicultural Literature
• LI210 American Women Writers
• LI212 Black Revolutionary Thought
• LI214 US Latinx Literature
• LI215 Slavery and Freedom
• LI309 Topics in US Multicultural Literature
• **LI361 Native American Literature
• **LI362 Topics in US Latinx Literature
• LI382 African American Literature
• LI481 Topics in African American Literature
• **LI312 Harlem Renaissance
• MU239 History of Jazz
• PL332 Civil Rights
• PS306 Psychology of Prejudice
• SO200 Race and Ethnicity: The Key Concepts
• **TH313 African American Theatre and Culture
• **TH404 US Theatre and Society