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Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Minor

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies focuses on social justice issues that are shaped by race, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, and other contemporary and historical forms of group differentiation. It also looks to the political struggles of systematically and structurally marginalized people in exploring innovative strategies for social transformative action.

Mission Statement

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies (CRES) at St. John’s University is a home for cutting-edge research and critical pedagogy on contemporary and historical structural and social inequalities, international migration, economic globalization, healthcare systems, legal and carceral structures, colonialism, and empire. CRES provides students with rigorous training in methods of critical inquiry that are relevant to the most pressing social, political, and cultural challenges we face in the 21st century and their historical antecedents.

Degree Type
Minor
Area of Interest
Social Sciences
Associated Colleges or Schools
Program Location
  • Queens Campus
Required Credit Hours
15

CRES faculty members are a diverse community of socially engaged scholars with expertise in the fields of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies across the Humanities, Social Sciences, the Arts, Law, Education, and the Natural and Health Sciences. Underlying the CRES curriculum is a commitment to generating transformative knowledge about the dynamics of social power and inequity, the social implications of cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity, and the ethical mandates of equity and social justice. 

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies focuses on social justice issues that are shaped by race, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, gender, sexuality, and other contemporary and historical forms of group differentiation. It also looks to the political struggles of systematically and structurally marginalized people in exploring innovative strategies for social transformative action.

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies prides itself on the diversity of its students, faculty, and staff, all of whom are committed to academic excellence in teaching and research, and to providing programming and mentorship that advances our university’s Vincentian mission to be a model of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and equity.

 

The Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Minor requires that students complete 15 credits.

Required (9 credits): 

CRES 1000: Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
CRES 2000: Methodologies in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
CRES 4995: Capstone Seminar in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Electives (6 credits):

Arts, Performance, and the Digital:

  • ART 1810: Racism in Film
  • ENG 3560: American Ethnic Literature
  • ENG 3590: Hip-Hop Aesthetics
  • ENG 3640: Vernacular Literature
  • MUS 1210: American Popular Music in the 20th/21st Centuries
  • MUS 1300: History of Jazz

Education and Social Justice:

  • CRES 4999: Internship / Externship
  • ENG 3420: Race and the Environment
  • ENG 3760: Writing as Social Action
  • ENG 3475: Black Women’s Rhetoric
  • FRE 3920: Human Rights in Francophone Africa
  • THE 4995: Integrative Interdisciplinary Social Justice Seminar 

History, Historicism, Histography:

  • HIS 3375: Asian American History
  • HIS 3711: African American History to 1900
  • HIS 3712: African American History since 1900

Political Economy and Economics, Capital, and Accumulation:

  • CRES 3410: Racial Capitalism and Accumulation 

Religion, Law, and Philosophy:

  • THE 2245: Liberation Theology
  • THE 2255: Race and Religion (in the US)
  • PHI 3750: The Philosophy of Race

Sociology, Social Formation, and Sociogeny:

  • ENG 3645: Comparative Migration Literature
  • ENG 3650: Caribbean Literature
  • FRE 3820/3822: French Afro-Caribbean Literature and Culture (French/English)
  • FRE 3850/3908: Race and Immigration in France (French/English) 
  • FRE 3870/3923: Urban Culture in Contemporary France (French/English) 
  • PSY 2230: Psychology of the African American Experience
  • SOC 2230: Sociology of Latinos/as in the US (appears it was last taught in 2021)
  • SOC 2350: Social Construction of Race in the Americas
  • SOC 2450: Sociology of the Black Experience 

STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (Natural, Health, Clinical Sciences):

  • CRES 3710: BIPOC Feminist Science and Technology Studies 
  • CPP 3155: Building Health Equity: Critical Evaluations of Structural Inequity, Racism, and Health Outcomes
  • SOC 1035: Science, Technology, and the Human

Faculty

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Founding Director

Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Affiliated Faculty

Dr. Manouchkathe Cassagnol

Dr. Raj Chetty

Dr. Jeremy Cruz

Dr. Robert Rivera

Dr. Anthony Rodriguez

Dr. Elda Tsou

CRES Social Media

Interested in Social Sciences, but not sure if Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Minor is right for you?