Ethnic Studies
The 2008-09 membership of this committee had not been determined at the time Courses of Instruction went to press; below is the committee’s most recent roster. If complete membership information for 2008-09 becomes available, it will be added to the on-line course catalog.
Faculty of the Committee on Ethnic Studies
Kay Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies, Associate of Currier House (Chair)
Ali S. Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Cultures
Lisa T. Brooks, Assistant Professor of History and Literature and of Folklore and Mythology
Vincent Brown, Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History (on leave 2008-09)
Lucien G. Castaing-Taylor, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies and of Anthropology (on leave spring term)
Joyce E. Chaplin, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History
Kimberly McClain DaCosta, Associate Professor of African and African American Studies and of Social Studies
Deborah D. Foster, Senior Lecturer on Folklore and Mythology
Jennifer L. Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard College Professor (on leave spring term)
Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies
Susan W. Lewis, Director of the Core Program
Carmen D. Lopez, Executive Director, Harvard University Native American Program (Kennedy School)
Malinda Maynor Lowery, Assistant Professor of History (on leave 2008-09)
Marc Shell, Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English (on leave spring term)
Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies (on leave fall term)
Rachel St. John, Assistant Professor of History
Mary C. Waters, M. E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology
The Committee on Ethnic Studies is an Interdisciplinary Coordinating Committee constituted of faculty members from across the disciplines appointed to encourage and promote course offerings on ethnicity in the US. Ethnic studies might briefly be described as the study of aspects of collective identity shaped by factors ranging from descent to affinity. The field has emerged from and continues to flourish within individual departments as well as across disciplinary boundaries. Methodologies for the study of ethnicity vary, as does subject matter, which ranges from expressive culture to social organization, but scholars in ethnic studies share the challenge of studying intensely heterogeneous populations and materials. American ethnic communities have provided an important focus as well as particularly rich units of study for scholars of ethnicity, giving rise to many of the foundational works in the field. At the same time, both research and pedagogy in ethnic studies is often international and comparative in its purview due to the interaction between and among communities within individual locales as well as the global flow of people in diaspora. Ethnic studies have further given rise to a lively and growing body of theoretical work, sparked in part by the necessity to document and interpret the redefinition of identity through on-going processes shaped both by descent and consent.
The Committee on Ethnic Studies oversees the disposition of two FTE’s annually to bring to campus visitors who offer courses in Native American, US Latino, and Asian American Studies. Past course offerings have spanned such topics as Native American Art and Architecture, Asian American Literature, Spanish Caribbean Music, Comparative Urban Latino Politics, and the relationship among Native Americans, Hispanos, and Anglos in the American Southwest.
To see additional committee activities, please see the website: www.fas.harvard.edu/~cesh/
The Committee does not offer an undergraduate concentration or an advanced degree. However, concentrations focusing on topics relating to ethnic studies can be undertaken through many departments, as well as within programs such as Social Studies, History and Literature, Folklore and Mythology, and Special Concentrations.
Core Courses in Ethnic Studies
Foreign Cultures 46. Caribbean Societies: Socioeconomic Change and Cultural Adaptations
Foreign Cultures 60. Individual, Community, and Nation in Vietnam
Foreign Cultures 70. Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
Foreign Cultures 82. Modern Arabic Narratives: Self, Society, and Culture
[Foreign Cultures 86. West African Cultures]
Foreign Cultures 88. The African Experience: Between Tradition and Modernity
Historical Study A-14. Japan: Tradition and Transformation
Historical Study A-16. Modern South Asia in Global History
Historical Study A-67. Gendered Communities: Women, Islam, and Nationalism in the Middle East and North Africa
[Literature and Arts A-48. Modern Jewish Literature]
Literature and Arts A-88. Interracial Literature
Literature and Arts B-78. Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World
Literature and Arts B-82. Sayin’ Something: Jazz as Sound, Sensibility, and Social Dialogue
Social Analysis 54. American Society and Public Policy
Social Analysis 66. Race, Ethnicity, and Politics in the United States
Freshman Seminars in Ethnic Studies
*Freshman Seminar 37y. Muslim Voices in Contemporary World Literatures
*Freshman Seminar 40y. Histories of the US-Mexico Border
Courses with a Primary Focus on Ethnicity in the United States
[*History 74a (formerly *History 1612). African Diaspora in the Americas]
[History 1330 (formerly History 1661). Social Thought in Modern America]
[History 1430 (formerly History 1657). Native America: The East]
[History 1431 (formerly History 1658). Native America: The West]
[Sociology 60. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity]
Courses Related to Ethnicity and the United States
[Anthropology 1090. Ethnography and Archaeology]
*Anthropology 1610. Ethnographic Research Methods
Anthropology 1760. Nationalism and Bureaucracy
[Anthropology 1850. Ethnography as Practice and Genre]
Chinese Literature 132. Chinatowns
Folklore and Mythology 114. Embodied Expression/Expressive Body: Dance in Cultural Context
Folklore and Mythology 126. Continuing Oral Tradition in Native American Literature
Government 20. Introduction to Comparative Politics
*History 74e. North American Borderlands History - (New Course)
*History 84c (formerly *History 1610). Confronting Objects/Interpreting Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on North America
Music 194r. Special Topics: Proseminar
[Sociology 60. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity]
[*Sociology 184. Freedom in America: An Historical Sociology: Conference Course]
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1162. Imagining Asian America - (New Course)
[Visual and Environmental Studies 189. Exploring Culture Through Film]
Courses Related to Ethnicity outside the United States
Anthropology 1760. Nationalism and Bureaucracy
Chinese Literature 132. Chinatowns
French 70c. Introduction to French Literature III: The Francophone World
*Government 98gs (formerly *Government 90gs). Civil Society in Asia
Government 1295. Comparative Politics in Latin America
[Government 1760. International Relations of East Asia]
*History 84c (formerly *History 1610). Confronting Objects/Interpreting Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on North America
[*History 89c (formerly *History 1958). Islam and Ethnicity]
Literature 166 (formerly Comparative Literature 166). The Comic Tradition in Jewish Culture
[Music 190r. Topics in World Music: Proseminar]
Music 206r. Research Methods in Ethnomusicology: Musical Ethnography
[Music 207r. Ethnomusicology: Seminar]
Portuguese 37. Brasil hoje: Contemporary Brazilian Culture through Media
Portuguese 44 (formerly Portuguese 38). Images of Brazil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
[Religion 11. World Religions Today: Diaspora, Diversity and Dialogue]
[*Religion 1820 (formerly *Religion 1585). Islam in South Asia: Religion, Culture, and Identity in South Asian Muslim Societies]
*Social Studies 98gf. Modernity and Social Change in East Asia
Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1210ft. Feminist Theory: Feminism and Psychoanalysis