Program Goals and Objectives

  • To consider the construction and contestation of American identities, nationalism, and distributions of rights, privileges, citizenship, and the allocation of economic resources.
  • To consider the intersectionality of race, class, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and other modes of social differentiation as tools of critical analysis.
  • To introduce students to important conceptual constructs such as queer, race and critical theories.
  • To delineate the fundamental elements of thinking historically, especially their importance in social, cultural and intellectual analysis.
  • To analyze the production, circulation, and critical reception of material culture.
  • To consider the ways that performances in everyday life (such as cooking and dress) produce cultural meaning.
  • To communicate effectively in writing and speech.
  • To facilitate a vibrant conversation between students and faculty across the campus and beyond in a variety of fields.
  • To foster ethical engagement in larger communities–local, national, and international.
  • To prepare students for fulfilling careers in a variety of fields, including research and teaching; policy, advocacy and community work; law; cultural organization and curating; digitization and management.