Raza Studies

College of Ethnic Studies
Dean: Kenneth Monteiro

Department of Raza Studies
EP 103
415-338-6160
Chair: Velia Garcia

Faculty

Professors—Almaguer, Cordova, Cuellar, Murguia, Rivera

Associate Professors—Carrillo, Garcia, Mirabal

Assistant Professors—Duncan-Andrade, Reyes

Lecturers—Dávila, Kury, Quiñonez, Rojas

Programs

B.A. in Raza Studies
Minor in Raza Studies

Program Scope

Raza Studies is a unique multidisciplinary liberal arts program for students interested in equity and social justice, a San Francisco State University mission. Our programs offer students a comprehensive knowledge base, critical skills, and social consciousness that will enable them to function as effective leaders in an increasingly complex and diverse global society. The curriculum is critical, analytical, holistic, and cutting-edge. It offers students an integrated series of major/minor core and elective courses as well as General Education courses that help them to gain a better understanding of the historical and cultural presence of Chicanos and Latinos in the United States. Our programs also develop an area of expertise regarding Latinos in the United States and an analysis of racialization, racial inequity, and understanding of how those inequities are developed and perpetuated in our communities. The curriculum specifically addresses Chicano/a, Mexican, Central and South American, and Caribbean peoples, histories, and cultures in the United States. The Raza Studies curriculum stresses the importance of critical scholarship, merging theory and practice, and developing a professional sense of social responsibility and commitment to service, civic engagement, social justice, and equity.

The Raza Studies program fosters mentoring relationships with students. A range of support services is offered, including advising, academic skills development, and graduate school and career development workshops.

Community Internships and International Study Tours

Local community service learning internships and international study tours offer unique learning opportunities for students to enrich their academic experience. Students may earn up to six units in each of these programs. The department requires that students complete at least one three-unit, 30-hour local community service learning internship for the Raza studies major. Community internships are available every semester and students are encouraged to plan for at least one semester of internship during which their community service activities can be applied in multiple classes as service learning modules.

Faculty supervised international study tours travel to Cuba in January and in June and to Mexico in June. The study tours are designed to provide students with opportunities to interact with local people and to learn about the life, culture, social institutions and community-based organizations in Cuba and Mexico, as well as the unique relationships of these countries to the U.S.

Local Community Service Learning Internships.The department maintains a database of one hundred Bay Area direct service agencies, educational institutions, and research and policy organizations. An internship faire is held in the early weeks of the semester to bring agency/organization representatives together with students looking for internships. Students are supervised in their internship placements for a minimum of 30 hours a semester. Students enroll concurrently in RAZA 694, a three-unit course that consists of a set of interactive on-line reflective exercises and discussions related to their community work. The community service learning internships are designed to enrich the academic experience and to prepare students for future careers as well as to extend the professional networks of our students in an effort to establish positive contacts within the Latino community of the larger Bay Area.

Cuba Study Tour. Students are required to enroll concurrently or consecutively in RAZA 692 and RAZA 693, meet specified grade requirements, and have the consent of the instructor to travel to Cuba. These courses prepare students for the intensive two-week study tour of Cuban institutions of health, education, and culture.

The Mexico Study Tour is scheduled every year following the end of the Spring semester. It is an intensive twelve-day tour during which students meet with community-based organizations in Mexico that are engaged in a process of political and social change. Requirements for the study tour include: consent of the instructor and spring enrollment in RAZA 670. The course prepares students for the study tour by covering Mexican history and politics and Mexico’s unique relationship to the U.S.

General Education and U.S. History and Government Requirements

Students may elect to complete university requirements for U.S. history and government with RAZA 276 and RAZA 376. Students are encouraged to complete university G.E. Segment I, Basic Skills requirements with RAZA or ETHS 110 and RAZA 214. G.E. Segment I Basic Subjects courses do not count in the Raza Studies major.

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN RAZA STUDIES

The Raza Studies major provides students with a solid grounding in the theoretical approaches and methodologies that define the field of Raza studies.  The degree program prepares students to pursue graduate and professional studies or alternatively to begin careers in the public or private sectors. The 39-unit B.A. in Raza Studies consists of a core of four three-unit courses, twelve units of courses chosen from three focus areas and fifteen units of electives chosen on advisement from the list of courses that are offered by the department. Students must complete at least one three unit community service learning module in at least one of the three-unit courses in the major program.

There are three broad areas of course offerings in Raza Studies: 1. Arts and Humanities, 2. History, and 3. Behavioral and Social Sciences. Under Arts and Humanities, the Department offers courses ranging from Art History to Aztec Philosophy to Literature to Comparative Music Folklore. Under the heading of History, we offer RAZA 376, a comparative Latino history course that fulfills a student’s requirement for U.S. History as well as more specialized history courses on the diverse Latino subgroups in the United States. Under the heading of Behavioral and Social Sciences, we offer a wide variety of courses on public and social policy issues in health, education, family, immigration, community life, political economy, juvenile and criminal justice. Throughout our curriculum, we emphasize gender, transnational identities, global economies, social movements, and literatures of resistance.

On-line course descriptions are available.

NOTE: Students must complete at least one community service learning module consisting of three units of 694 and three units selected from Raza Studies courses designated (CSL). The two courses must be taken concurrently. Courses marked CSL offer internship opportunities.

MINOR IN RAZA STUDIES

The department offers a minor to students who have selected a different major but who also want to pursue a coherent course of study in the field of Raza studies. The minor program enables students to supplement a core of course work with a selection of electives that complement the major they have chosen. The minor consists of 24 units of which twelve are required core units and twelve are elective units chosen on advisement.