Undergraduate
Undergraduate Program Overview
Ethnic Studies is the study of the social, cultural, and historical forces that have shaped the development of America's diverse ethnic peoples over the last 500 years and which continue to shape our future. Focusing on immigration, slavery, and confinement, those three social processes that combined to create in the U.S. a nation of nations, ethnic studies intensively examines the histories, languages, and cultures of America's racial and ethnic minority groups in and of themselves, in their relationships to each other, and particularly, in structural contexts of power.
The
curriculum of the Department of Ethnic Studies is designed to:
1) study
intensively the particular histories of different ethnic and racial
groups in the U.S., especially intragroup stratification
2) to draw
larger theoretical lessons from comparisons among these groups
3) to
articulate general principles that shape racial and ethnic relations
both currently and historically
4) to explore how ethnic identity
is constructed and reconstructed over time both internally and externally.
A degree in Ethnic Studies offers training of special interest to those considering admission to graduate or professional schools and careers in education, law, medicine, public health, social work, journalism, business, city planning, politics, psychology, international relations, or creative writing. A major in ethnic studies is designed to impact fundamental skills in critical thinking, comparative analysis, social theory and research analysis, and written expression. These skills will give students the opportunity to satisfy the increasingly rigorous expectations of graduate admissions committees and prospective employers for a broad liberal arts perspective.
Department
of Ethnic Studies, MC - 0522
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0522
Phone:
858.534.3276
Fax: 858.534.8194
E-mail: ethnicstudies@ucsd.edu