Ethnic Studies' Mission and Purpose Statement
The mission of the College of Ethnic Studies is to provide safe academic spaces and resources for all to learn the histories and contexts in which to practice the theories of resistance and liberation in order to eliminate racism and other forms of oppression; and to study in the first person voice the cultural and intellectual traditions of these peoples that are often ignored or misrepresented in the current U.S. academic canons.
The College was founded on principles of community-based research and teaching, student leadership and activism, and the self-determination of communities of color. Its work is anchored in, but not limited to, social justice movements indigenous to oppressed peoples of the United States. Forty years ago the College of Ethnic Studies emerged from a collective struggle for self-determination and this quest continues to be the organizing principle of the college.
We recognize the validity of multiple paradigms in the construction of knowledge and encourage the integrated study of all aspects of the human experience. Our commitment to self-determination is reflected in the College's founding curricular emphases on liberatory student-centered pedagogies and community participatory learning that promote creative thinking on solving social problems and disparities in communities of color and indigenous peoples.
In our teaching, scholarship and creative work, we specifically analyze structural forms of oppression and address the intersections of race, ethnicity, and other forms of identity and social status. Our work affirms comparative and trans-disciplinary approaches to national and diasporic questions. The primary aim of the College of Ethnic Studies is to actively implement a vision of social justice focusing on eliminating social inequalities that exist on the basis of race and ethnicity. Therefore our teaching, encouragement, and mentoring of students and student organizations have the goal of developing long-term leadership skills, knowledge of self, and collaborative activist abilities for those working within and between communities of color and indigenous peoples.
Some faculty, student and staff members of the College of Ethnic Studies
