About the Program
The Chicana/o Studies Department (CHS) adheres to the core values of social justice, human rights, empowerment, cultural responsiveness and service to community. Our teaching, scholarship and mentoring are informed by Liberatory theories and pedagogical practices articulated in the work of scholars such as Paolo Freire who assumes that the teacher is not all-knowing or neutral; the teacher shares their knowledge within their philosophical framework and both teachers and students have a vested interest in the reciprocal process of learning. He states in Pedagogy of Freedom Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage, “To teach is not to transfer knowledge but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge…Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning” (p.30-31). Moreover, as bell hooks notes, “The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility, we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom” (Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, 1994, p. 207).
Our mission is to prepare and empower culturally responsive students to engage in critical thinking about the sociohistorical, multicultural, intersectional, and global contexts in which they live, learn and work; understand the changing demographics in US society; and to articulate and analyze public policy issues and implications grounded in the diverse experiences, expressions, social conditions of Chicano/a/x and Latino/a/x and Indigenous communities.
Students must choose one concentration within the major.
The Cultural Studies concentration is designed for students who are interested in topics that study aspects of Chicano/a-Latino/ a cultural production which range from Chicano/a art, film, popular culture; music; religion; literature.
The Social Practice concentration is designed for students interested in working within the diverse Chicano/a and Latina/o communities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Potential employment opportunities include, but are not limited to, human services, governmental services, the non-profit sector, legal professions, education, family literacy, community organizing, and labor. Adhering to the interdisciplinary nature of Chicana/o Studies, these courses will rely on the vast scholarship on the above mentioned fields, in addition to having opportunities to work with identified community partners in service learning, internships, and field study.
Student Outcomes
- Analyze literary works including reference to genre, theme, and tone use of language.
- Identify and analyze cultural texts and artifacts as relevant sources of cultural production.
- Explain phenomena that shape gender roles and relations within Chicana/o & Latina/o communities; i.e. patriarchy, machismo, marianismo, virgin/whore dichotomy.
- Demonstrate intermediate competency in the principle domains of the Spanish language among Chicana/o & Latina/o populations in the U.S.
- Identify the sociolinguistic factors that reflect the evolution and utilization of the Spanish language among Chicana/o & Latina/o populations in the U.S.
- Demonstrate the ability to utilize praxis: theory + action + reflection, in multiple settings.
- Analyze public policy issues that impact Chicana/o & Latina/o communities: i.e. legal, health care, globalization, free trade, immigration, education and climate change.
- Outline/explain major historical moments and figures that have shaped Chicana/o Latina/o socio- cultural experiences.
- Compare and contrast diverse religious and spiritual experiences in Chicana/o Latina/o communities.
- Recognize the diverse indigenous peoples and communities throughout Meso-America and the contemporary Southwest, which have Chicana/o & Latina/o identities.
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