INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS

Women's Studies

Gender and Race in the Social Studies of Science, Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This course examines recent scholarship on the role of gender and race in the social studies of science drawing from the fields of biology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and history. We will use works both by feminists and by more traditionalist scholars to elaborate on an emerging synthesis.

Race in the Bio-Medical Construction of "Woman", Cornell University
Using feminist theory and historical case studies, this course critically explores the cultural work of "race" in scientific constructions of "woman" with a concentration on twentieth century America. With the help of the readings and class discussion, the goal of this class will be to begin to piece together this yet untold history, and even to develop new questions and methods for doing so.

National Council for Research on Women
NCRW's mission is to enhance the connections among research, policy analysis, advocacy, and innovative programming on behalf of women and girls.

Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resource
This quarterly contains news of the latest print and audiovisual resources for research and teaching in women's studies. Recent book reviews have treated such subjects as African American women writers, lesbians in popular culture, and women in the international marketplaces. There are also guides to new bibliographies and reference works, film, etc.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930, SUNY Binghamton
Created by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Tom Dublin of the History Department, this site consists of projects by undergraduate and graduate students at SUNY Binghamton and is intended to introduce students, teachers, and scholars to a rich collection of primary documents related to women and social movements in the United States between 1830 and 1930.

The Women's Studies Program, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

One of the oldest Women's Studies Programs in the nation, Rutgers program is one of a handful of interdisciplinary, degree-granting programs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The program draws their faculty from many of the New Brunswick departments; most faculty teach one course a year in the program, and spend the rest of their teaching time in their home departments. Undergraduate students may elect a course plan leading to a major or minor in Women's Studies.

Women's Studies, University of Maryland, College Park

This interdisciplinary degree program is designed to introduce students to the new scholarship about the social, political, and cultural experiences of women. The department offers a B.A in Women's Studies as well as undergraduate and graduate certificates. This site includes a Women's Studies database.

Women's Studies Program, University of California, Los Angeles

Established in 1975, this interdepartmental program in the College of Letters and Science offers a major and minor for undergradute study, with a proposal for a graduate program to open in September 2000.

U.S. and World Ethnic Studies

Race and Citizenships in America, University of California, Irvine
This course looks at American political history through the lens of race relations. The course begins by looking at the importance of citizenship policy and its relationship to social constructions of race and "whiteness." It then turns to look at the historical experiences of different racial/ethnic groups in order to understand the evolution of what it has meant to be an American "citizen" throughout US history, and how that process is related to changing understandings of the "meanings" of different "races."

Intercultural Studies Project: A Living/Learning College, St. Lawrence University
The Intercultural Studies Project is a living/learning center devoted to engaging faculty and students in the study of cultural diversity and the critical practices which promote it. This project imbeds intergroup dialogue pedagogy within a diverse living/learning center called the Intercultural House. Students who live in The Intercultural House are enrolled in Introduction to Intercultural Studies (CE 150). This course will engage students in an interdisciplinary study of U.S. cultural diversity in a global and comparative context.

Latin American & Iberian Institute, University of New Mexico

The Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) administers UNM's interdisciplinary programs in Latin American Studies and provides university-wide support for Latin American activities in all of UNM's eleven schools and colleges. LAII provides advisement and financial assistance for students in the Latin American Studies and dual-degree programs; coordinates academic and cultural exchanges with Latin American Institutions; conducts special projects of an educational character, including public programs and outreach with public schools; and offers grants for summer field research in Latin America by graduate students and faculty.

Crossroads in the Study of the Americas (CISA), the Five Colleges

As the newest center of the Five Colleges, CISA is a curricular project that crosses disciplinary boundares to examine contemporary issues of culture and citizenship. In this interview, CISA director Robbie Schwartzwald describes the process through which the idea for the center evolved, as well as the goals and expectations he and his colleagues have for it.

Program in American Culture, University of Michigan

The Program in American Culture enables undergraduate studies in many areas of U.S. society and culture integrating approaches from many fields: not only historical and literary study, but also visual studies, musicology, film and media, anthropology, and others. The Program courses stress the importance of studying U.S. nationhood, including Americans' sometimes conflictingideals and experiences of what it means to be American in the context of both historical and contemporary settings. With concentrations in either American Culture or Latino Studies, students who don't choose to design their own curriculum select a track that fits their interests: 1) Arts, Literature and Culture; 2) Ethnic Studies; or 3) Society and Politics.

American Ethnic Studies Program, University of Washington

The primary focus of the American Ethnic Studies major is to expose students to key content, methodologies, and theories in the comparative and interdisciplinary study of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Chicanos in the United States. Major degree requirements include 55 credits to include 30 credits of core courses and 25 credits in an option of courses in Afro-American Studies, Asian American Studies, Comparative American Ethnic Studies.

Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA), Brown University

Established in 1988, the CSREA is an interdisciplinary organization which develops and promotes research and programs on Race and Ethnicity. In an effort to understand the implications of race and ethnicity as historical, social, and analytical categories for multidisciplinary studies, the Center facilitates teaching and research on African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, biracials and multiracials. The Center emphasizes the interdisciplinary and comparative study of these groups and promotes analytical studies of race, ethnicity, gender, and class.

The American Cultures Program, the University of Houston

The American Culture Program is offered to students at the University of Houston as an exiting and innovative alternative to traditional undergraduate minors. The program's overarching goals are to build a community that transcends traditional department and disciplinary boundaries and to create a forum where students and faculty from a wide variety of backgrounds can come together to explore the forces that divide us as well as those that unite us. In order to provide this, the program draws from an interdisciplinary set of faculty, is broadly inclusive in its curriculum, takes a comparative and transnational outlook, and is committed to student-centered teaching.

The American Cultures Center, University of California, Berkeley

Courses meeting the American Cultures requirement focus on how the diversity of America's constituent cultural traditions have shaped and continue to shape American identity and experience. These courses are a new approach that responds directly to the problem encountered in numerous disciplines of how better to present the diversity of American experience to the diversity of American students whom we now educate.

African American Studies

African American Studies, Iowa State University

The African American Studies program at Iowa State University is a model program that bridges the divide between student affairs and academic affairs. The program offers many classes that are small enough to allow for lively and provocative discussion. In addition, the program has developed three student-coordinated support groups: The African American Studies Society, which provides a forum for a wide range of issues, The Band of Brothers, which focuses on African American males, and The Circle of Trust, which focuses on African American females. These three groups, open to all students, enrich education by developing closer links between classroom and out-of-classroom experiences.

W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University

Founded in 1975, the Institute serves as the site for research projects, fellowships for emerging and established scholars, publications, conferences, and Working Groups.

African American Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley

The department offers an undergraduate major and minor and a Ph.D. program in African American Studies, with a site link to their online newsletter, The Diaspora.

The Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University

The Institute is an academic resource center located near the heart of Harlem, the world's most famous black community. Established in 1993, the Institute administers the undergraduate major and concentration in African-American Studies at Columbia University.

Asian American Studies

Diaspora and Asian American Experiences, Wesleyan University
This year-long innovative course is part of a four-year project supported by the Freeman Initiative grant to further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan. Introducing recent theoretical approaches to topics in Asian American history and in understanding Asian American experiences, the course aims at learning about Asian diaspora through classroom study and guided research during the summer.

Association for Asian American Studies
The AAAS website offers an array of resources including a directory of Asian American Studies programs nationwide, links to upcoming conferences, and information on starting an Asian American Studies program.

Asian American Cultural Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles

One of the largest teaching programs in Asian American Studies in the nation,UCLA's center has been preparing Asian American Studies scholars for the past twenty-five years. The center offers 50-60 classes, has a newly approved BA major, an undergraduate specialization/minor, an MA program, and is currently making plans to offer the nation's first Ph.D. in Asian American Studies.

School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies (SHAPS), University of Hawaii

Located within the uniquely multiethnic environment of Hawaii, SHAPS has become the largest resource facility for Asian and Pacific studies in the world, offering academic programs in Asian Studies, Hawaiian Studies, and Pacific Island Studies and offering centers for Chinese Studies, Hawaiian Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Philippines Studies, South Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and Russia in Asia. There is also a program for Buddhist Studies.

Latino/Latina Studies

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sociolinguistics: The Language of America's Ethnic Minorities, New York University

How speakers see themselves and how they are seen by others are often linked to the language that they speak and the linguistic choices that they make. This course considers the interaction of language and ethnicity. Students look at the role of language in the construction of identity, particularly ethnic and racial identity. Further, they will consider in-group and out-group uses of language alike. In particular, the course focuses on three sets of minorities: African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos

Latinos in the U.S., Elon University

This course is an interdisciplinary study of the diversity of the culture, history, and social, economic and political situation of the Latino population in the United States. We will approach the subject through literature, film and music, through current articles from various disciplines, and through direct contact with the local Latino population. This course continues to develop student's language skills in Spanish. Course conducted in Spanish.

Latin American & Iberian Institute, University of New Mexico

The Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) administers UNM's interdisciplinary programs in Latin American Studies and provides university-wide support for Latin American activities in all of UNM's eleven schools and colleges. LAII provides advisement and financial assistance for students in the Latin American Studies and dual-degree programs; coordinates academic and cultural exchanges with Latin American Institutions; conducts special projects of an educational character, including public programs and outreach with public schools; and offers grants for summer field research in Latin America by graduate students and faculty.

Specialization in Latino Studies, Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University

The specialization in Latino studies is designed to help students to understand the multicultural dimensions of society; to gain a knowledge of Latino scholarship and scholars; to enrich their majors by addressing issues of ethnicity, race, gender, and social inequality; to learn the basics of social science research and to apply the knowledge that they gain to the study of Latino communities and life.

Gay and Lesbian Studies

Lesbian and Gay Studies Project (LGSP), Center for Gender Studies, University of Chicago

The LGSP, an integral part of the University's Center for Gender Studies, coordinates graduate and undergraduate courses, provides research grants and dissertation-year fellowships to graduate students, sponsors the bi-weekly Lesbian and Gay Studies Workshop, and organizes research projects and conferences.

Studies About Class

The Center for Working-Class Studies (CWCS), Youngstown State University

The CWCS is the only center of its kind in the United States devoted to the study of working-class life and culture. The Center develops courses in working-class studies, organizes a biennial conference, publishes a newsletter, and sponsors an annual speaker series. It houses a library and maintains a bibliography on working-class studies to help promote scholarship in the field. Undergraduate students majoring in American Studies have the option of developing a focus area on Work in America, while many other students have combined attention to class with emphasis on other aspects of diversity in foucs areas of their own design.

Disability Studies

Disability Studies in the Humanities
Disability Studies in the Humanities is intended to serve as a forum and bulletin-board for those interested and involved in disability studies across the broad range of humanities scholarship. In addition to serving as a connecting point for scholars, teachers and students in this field of study, the website contains syllabi, announcements, directories, bibliographies, and other relevant materials.

Disability Studies Online Magazine
Focusing on the academic field of disability studies and interdisciplinary discussions of disability, this magazine considers disability within the framework of society, rather than as individual pathology, and emphasizes the connections and relevance of disability to a wide variety of disciplines, including geography, sociology, medicine, social work, social policy, architecture, art history, anthropology, comparative religions, philosophy, law, popular culture, media and film, literature, history, women studies, education, and others.