About
The Department of Ethnic Studies launched in fall 2024, after years of student demands and institution building. Our department stands on the legacy of the former College of Ethnic Studies by serving BIPOC communities, promoting empowerment and liberation, and integrating theory and practice throughout the curriculum.
Ethnic Studies centers the histories, epistemologies and lived experiences of communities of color and Indigenous Nations. Our approach is intersectional and transnational. Ethnic Studies courses challenge systems of power and oppression, and advance liberation, emancipation, and self-determining futures. Students critically analyze differences in power expressed by the state, civil society, and individuals. Students challenge social constructions of race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and gender. Ethnic Studies stresses the unique perspectives, contributions, and knowledges of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and other marginalized communities. Ethnic Studies also prepares students to do collaborative and ethical research.
Mission
Ethnic Studies at WWU assesses the lived experiences of racially minoritized and colonized peoples and their dignity in the face of subjugation, dispossession, and enslavement and its afterlives.
Core concerns that we explore are colonialism, imperial circuits of migration, border imperialism, social movements and resistance, and an ever-expanding carceral state. Interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches emphasized in our program include community-led research, literary criticism, critical discourse analysis, political economy, empirical methods, and narrative production.
Impact
Your gift to the Ethnic Studies Department will fund guest speakers, conference travel, community partnerships, collaborations, and networking opportunities.
Thank you for your support!
