The Ethnic, Gender and Labor Studies major examines how communities form and are transformed, with a focus on the relationship between social class, race and ethnicity, and gender. This major has a special focus on African-Americans, Latino/as, Native Americans, Asian Americans, the multiracial working class and Women and Gender Studies. Through a wide variety of courses in the social sciences and humanities, students explore historical roots of various communities and analyze movements to facilitate labor and community organizing, coalition building, conflict resolution, group empowerment and movements for social change.
The labor studies option offers courses on the experience of work and workers in modern market economies. Courses focus on the political, economic and social developments that shape working life, along with workers' impact on society. Topics include unions and the labor movement, social class and inequality, the changing nature of work, international political economy and workplace culture. Labor Studies takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding these issues and emphasizes the connections between race, class and gender in an economic context.
The gender studies option offers courses that focus on gender roles and gender identity from a variety of theoretical approaches. These courses not only investigate the concepts of gender and sexuality but also explore the ways in which these concepts intersect with such diverse phenomena as society, politics, literature, globalization, music, economics, art, poverty, communication, race, film, work and popular culture. Gender Studies includes Women's Studies, Men's Studies and Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Studies and emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarship.
The ethnic studies option allows students the opportunity to study race and ethnicity through an interdisciplinary lens. Students interested in this option take courses using an ethnic specific approach (i.e. African American, Chicano/Latino, Asian American, Native American), as well as courses using a comparative approach to examining the contributions of people from diverse racial and ethnic groups to various areas of study including economics, gender studies, history literature, politics and sociology within global and local contexts.
