Minors in Race, Gender, & Ethnic Studies
Minors in Race, Gender, and Ethnic Studies
Expand your education and broaden your perspective with a minor from the Department of Race, Gender & Ethnic Studies. Open to students in any major, our four interdisciplinary minors complement your primary field of study by exploring the histories, ideas, and experiences that shape our communities and world. Along the way, you'll strengthen your research and communication skills and prepare for graduate study, meaningful careers, and engaged citizenship in an increasingly interconnected society.
Ethnic Studies Minor
Students who pursue an Ethnic Studies minor take a group of courses that address the roles of race, culture, class, gender, and sexuality in forming community, shaping institutions, defining social relationships, and creating individual and group identities.
The Ethnic Studies minor is open to any student in any major. Students complete 21 credits, taking two required courses and then choosing five additional upper-division (300- to 400-level) courses from interdisciplinary subject areas including:
- Critical Histories in Ethnic Studies
- Intersectionality and Coalitional Politics
- Creative Expressions and Social Change
- Community Organizing and Institutional Change
- Global Race, Power, and Resistance
Minors in Ethnic Studies find opportunities across a range of careers because of their abilities to research, analyze, and explain differences across communities with informed attention towards equity and social justice.
Indigenous Studies Minor
Students in the Indigenous Studies minor gain a deep understanding of the theoretical positions and practical applications central to Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Open to students of any major, this program is dedicated to foundational knowledge and awareness of Indigenous scholarship, priorities and ways of engaging.
When you complete an Indigenous Studies minor, you are prepared for careers in a wide range of fields and jobs as Indigenous knowledges and practices are being sought in environmental careers, many organizational fields, non-profit sectors, and even economic philosophies. Anyone seeking to work with Indigenous peoples, Nations, and issues will greatly benefit from this minor.
Students in the Indigenous Studies minor complete 21 credits total, including two required courses in Indigenous Cultural Experience and Indigenous Knowledges and five additional courses of your choice from three subject areas of Environment and Culture, Gender, and History, Law and Policy.
Queer Studies Minor
The Minor in Queer Studies brings together the interdisciplinary theories and methods of queer studies to explore the diverse histories, experiences, and perspectives of lesbian, gay, trans, queer, two-spirit, and genderqueer (LGBTQ+) communities. Open to students in any major, the minor introduces you to expressions of sexuality across identities, cultures, and historical periods while examining how sexuality and gender intersect with race, nation, disability, and other systems of power.
Through the 21-credit program, you'll explore the political and social forces that shape sexuality, gender expression, and family formation. Courses examine how science, medicine, law, religion, and other institutions influence the ways sexuality and gender are understood, experienced, and regulated.
Whether preparing for graduate school or a career in health, law, media, business, education, public service, or other fields, the Queer Studies minor helps you build the knowledge and critical perspective to engage with and advocate for LGBTQ+ communities and address contemporary issues related to equity and access, environmental and climate issues, and many community, national and global matters.
Women's & Gender Studies Minor
The Women's & Gender Studies minor explores how gender intersects with sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, religion, and nationality to better understand identity, power, and privilege in everyday life, work, politics, and culture. Open to students in any major, the interdisciplinary 21-credit program combines required Women's Studies and Ethnic Studies courses with electives from across the university.
Through the program, you'll examine diverse human experiences, perspectives, and systems of power while developing critical thinking, research, and communication skills. Whether you are preparing for graduate study or a career in education, public service, business, health, law, media, or other fields, the interdisciplinary Women's & Gender Studies minor provides the knowledge and perspective to navigate an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.
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