Ep. 51 - What is the Ethnic Studies major?

In Episode 51 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, Matt Markin chats with Dr. Diana Johnson, Professor in the History and Ethnic Studies departments! What is the Ethnic Studies major? What do students learn in their classes? What career opportunities are there? Find out in this episode!

Learn more about Ethnic Studies major!

E-mail: ethnicstudies@csusb.edu  

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Transcript

Hey Yoties. Welcome to the CSUSB advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin, an academic advisor here at Cal State San Bernardino. And today we're going to learn more about the bachelor's degree in Ethnic Studies. And to learn more about this major, we welcome our special guests history and Ethnic Studies professor Dr. Diana Johnson. Dr. Johnson, welcome. 

Hi, thank you for having me. 

So can you tell us a little bit about yourself your path into higher ed and being at CSUSB?

Yeah, so I'll try to be a little brief. I'm originally from Washington State. And so my my path into ethnic studies, and I'm also a trained historian, my path into both those fields is really entangled with my personal background. So I grew up in the Yakima Valley, kind of a medium sized agricultural community in Washington, my dad is Mexican, and my mom is white. And so I grew up kind of at the nexus of, of two different communities and, you know, racial or ethnic experiences. And so that was always kind of at the center of my, my world, and my, you know, kind of understanding of U.S. society. I always wanted to learn more when I was in school. But in K through 12, I felt like I was I was really interested in history, but I didn't see those experiences reflected a lot of times or the experiences of my family or wanting to know more about racial inequality, and you know, race and ethnicity at large in the US. So I was kind of frustrated by that. But then when I went to college, I, you know, became a history major. And in particular, was influenced also I minored, in African American Studies, and was particularly influenced by my African American Studies and Chicano studies professors. And then wanted to kind of push the historical field a little bit more in kind of merging those two fields. And that led me to eventually do my PhD at UC Davis. I am also a first gen student. So I worked with a mentoring program in my undergrad called the McNair Scholars Program, which helps underrepresented students and first gen students pursue a PhD. And so that's how I even learned about what a PhD was, how to go to graduate school, and, and all of those processes. So that was a really important part of my academic path. And then I was, you know, accepted to UC Davis did my PhD in history and decided to study race and ethnicity and activism. And specifically in my research, I look at multiracial coalition building coming out of Seattle, in Washington State at large in the 70s and 80s. And I look at Asian American, Chicano, Native American and African American activism. And so my work is very racially relational and very much optimist focused and influenced by both history and ethnic studies, fields. And then I applied to CSUSB, I was really excited about this dual appointment that I have. So I'm actually 50% in the history program and 50% in ethnic studies. So it was kind of this perfect melding of this of two worlds, for me are two disciplines. And then I also got the opportunity because we just launched the ethnic studies program this last fall as a department, I knew with this position that I would have the opportunity to build the program. And so to build the major and the department from the ground up was something that was really exciting to me. So that also drew me to CSUSB. 

Yeah, sounds like a lot of exciting opportunities happening. So really great to hear that. And how would you describe the the Ethnic Studies major? 

Yes. So ethnic studies is interdisciplinary. It is, you know, inherently grounded in the activism, voices and lived experiences of people of color, and in particular comes out of the 1968 student strikes at SF State, led by the Black Student Union, and also is very much coalitional includes student groups that represent particularly Asian American, Native American and Chicago students in conjunction with black students. Within, you know, this leading position in BSU at SF State, who are challenging. The fact that the curriculum doesn't reflect the histories and lived in experiences of in particular those four different communities. Who are these students are also challenging the racism, white supremacy entangled within the US education system, the lack of faculty of color, lack of curriculum authored by scholars of color. And so these students in 68, and part of this are part of this larger climate of protest. And I'm really focused on and then create actually the discipline of ethnic studies. So ethnic studies major at CSUSB reflects that we reflect those kind of the four pillars of these four different communities that are have been integral to the foundation of the discipline. But then we're also relational. So we're always looking at communities of color in relation to one another. Our classes are transnational. So if you look at our bulletin, we're interested as a department in topics like immigration and migration and global capitalism.

We look at in our classes, media studies, popular culture. And we're very much grounded in this interdisciplinary nature of the field since its foundation. So students will be looking at a variety of fields coming together psychology, anthropology, history, literature, media studies. And so although we will reflect as I, as I've said, kind of the foundation of the field and the four kind of pillars, going back to 1968, then we're also expansive in terms of being intersectional, transnational and relational.

And aside from the bachelor's degree, do you also offer a minor in ethnic studies? 

Yes, so we have an 18, unit minor, and then our major is 30, semester units as well. So I encourage students to you know, start with a minor potentially start with introductory courses, and then hopefully, learn more and potentially be engaged in the major. 

Awesome. And you kind of answered a little bit of this already, like what the history of it, but generally speaking, is there anything you want to add in terms of like other things that students might be learning, like in some of their classes or learning within the major? 

Yeah, so we're very focused on as I was saying, like activism, with experiences of bipoc, communities, communities of color. We're also consistently deconstructing structural racism, institutional racism. So it was kind of thinking about those kind of two sides to the major. And I think in most of our classes, students will be looking at those really large structures of oppression and racism, whether it be within education itself, which reflects the history of ethnic studies as a field, within immigration systems, within media, housing, all these kinds of really large institutional facets of racial inequality are absolutely core to a lot of the things that students will be learning about, and then paired with a lot of resistance effort. So how do people of color, you know, shape?

US society shape, resistance, and challenges to a lot of these systems of oppression systems of white supremacy? And then, of course, a lot of questions we get from students and revolve around careers, with with majors. So when you get like that career question of what can I do with this major? Or what kind of careers are connected potentially with this major? How would you answer that?

It's a great question. I mean, we're definitely building you know, it's our first year is that as a department, as I stated, so we're definitely kind of building in thinking about how we can integrate that knowledge within the major to guide students towards certain careers.

I would really say that, I think studies so understanding, you know, the experiences of people of color, and in US society and structural racism, I mean, that can pair with almost any fields, right, or can be an amazing asset to, I think, almost any field of study, but in particular, for thinking about ethnic studies, specifically, as a major students go into nonprofit work, government work, education, sometimes graduate school, pursuing, you know, a Master's or PhD in ethnic studies, we're also working on the K through 12 Teaching Track. So hopefully, students at CSUSB in the near future will have the opportunity to be trained to teach ethnic studies at the K through 12 level. So that's something we're very excited about, and is a growing mandate in the K through 12. system in California, as well. So there'll be a lot of career opportunities around teaching within our major coming up. 

And let's say students listen to this, and they're like, I'm now interested in potentially maybe declaring this as my major, but maybe they're like on the fence of declaring. Do you have any suggestions for that student? 

I mean, the first suggestion would be to reach out to any faculty where you know, a small department that's really mentoring and advising focused, we are loved working with our students face to face as much as possible. And so definitely come talk to us about any potential concerns you might have or concerns that students might have regarding, you know, Where can this major fit in terms of their career pathways as we, as we just discussed, also, were a fairly lower unit major. So I'd love for students who are double majoring to come discuss those opportunities with us and what that could look like. So all kinds of different pathways, both, you know, in terms of managing the curriculum, managing their units as a potential major or double major, but then also the career opportunities afterward. Because I think that's often something that gets obscured or muddled in terms of what are the specific things students are going to do after they graduate with a major in ethnic studies. 

Yeah, and you were mentioning too that with those major about 30 units. So lower unit major, so potentially good parallel with like, doing a minor doing a second, doing another bachelor's degree, so doing two, but then also, one of the classes that's required for the bachelors is ethnic studies, 1000, or 1400? Which cool thing is that also counts as one of the GE requirements anyway. 

That's a really good point. Yeah. So you're already off to a good start. And then we'd love to have the faculty in our department would love to talk to students more one on one and really think about how students think about the trajectory that they could take up with an ethnic studies. 

Yeah, definitely. Now, of course, misconceptions might come up to about certain majors, do you think there might be any misconceptions students might have about the ethnic studies major?

The one major thing I can think of is when I, when I work with students, I think there's a understanding of our classes being focused on primarily the history of race in the US. And although history is an important piece of our field, and that's an important grounding in the foundation of ethnic studies, I think maybe students aren't as aware of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. And so we how we bring in all these different fields in that, and theories, whether it be you know, critical race theory, or intersectionality. And how, you know, really the convergence of all of these different fields of study is such as strength to building ethnic studies as a program. And also that allows students to think about, you know, the different trajectories, they could take within the major when they're potentially in the senior seminar. And they're able to do their own research, right, that allows students to tap into so many different disciplines that might pique their interest. And that's all within this kind of larger umbrella of ethnic studies. So I think that is something I'd really like to promote and hopefully helps engage students in the different research pathways they could take. 

And then are there any resources that you can recommend for students or that your department might offer students?

So again, we're a new programs that unfortunately, we don't have, you know, we're hoped hoped to build, you know, like an ethnic studies club or scholarship programs as we move forward. Right now, I think some of the biggest resources we offer just our faculty, as I said, being so engaged and interested in student membership and advising. So being very willing to work one on one with students and very much loving that level of engagement with students.

We also have some things in the works. One of our faculty, Dr. Aaron Brown, for instance, is working on some different workshops that will hopefully run next year to help engage students in ethnic studies research outside of the classroom. So those will be things that we'll hopefully be announcing. But a lot of that is kind of in the works in its beginning stages. And then if a student has any questions you're mentioning, potentially reaching out to faculty,

how would they get the information like, would they look it up on the directory or go to the website?

Yeah, so if students have any questions, I'd encourage them. I mean, all of our contact information is on the Ethnic Studies website at CSUSB. So email is a great way to reach out, but also office hours in person, our main ethnic studies office is in SB 302. So we have Ethnic Studies suite that we're building, you know, getting more and more Ethnic Studies faculty on board. So definitely also dropped by or email us and we'll will, of course, tell you what office hours are, and we'd love to you know, meet with students, one on one. 

Sounds good. Dr. Johnson, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me. It's great.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai