Why Ethnic Studies?
If your major at ECU, your future career, or your personal interests include issues of race or ethnicity in the United States, our program is here to support you! Students pursuing an ethnic studies minor can take relevant coursework throughout the university, in departments from anthropology and English to psychology and public health, that gives them opportunities to think critically about questions like these:
- What is race?
- How does ethnicity relate to race?
- What constitutes membership in an ethnic group?
- How is ethnicity expressed, perceived, lived, constructed, and understood?
- How are experiences of race and ethnicity intersectionally informed by gender, socioeconomic status, and other facets of identity?
- What relevance does the study of racial justice have to diverse professional environments and fields from education to social services and criminal justice?
- As a field that has traditionally focused on the United States, how does ethnic studies also prepare us to view the cultures and histories of the world in transnational perspective?