Institute for Ethnic Studies majors and minors

Tom Gannon Author

10/02/2020 Added

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Tom Gannon talks about the Institute for Ethnic Studies.

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[00:00:00.375](tribal drumming and singing) Welcome, I'm Tom Gannon,
[00:00:03.180]the Academic Advisor for Ethnic Studies,
[00:00:05.430]and I'm here to talk about the Institute for Ethnic Studies.
[00:00:08.950]Right now we're located over in Louise Pound Hall.
[00:00:12.970]As you can see in the bottom there,
[00:00:14.680]it looks like there's a PokeStop there still,
[00:00:17.310]or else that's an Ojibwe symbol of wholeness.
[00:00:24.260]We were founded in 1972, way back when.
[00:00:27.840]In fact, in two years we'll be
[00:00:29.770]celebrating our 50th anniversary.
[00:00:32.900]We're a consortium of faculty members in arts and sciences
[00:00:36.330]who engage in research, teaching, and outreach,
[00:00:40.500]in terms of the three most historically
[00:00:43.130]oppressed groups in the United States,
[00:00:45.280]African-Americans, US Latina/Latinos, and Native Americans.
[00:00:53.670]So that probably gives you a clue of our three programs.
[00:00:56.170]Yes, we have three, African and African American Studies,
[00:01:00.670]Latin American and US Latina/Latino Studies,
[00:01:02.990]and finally, in my own bailiwick, Native American Studies.
[00:01:06.441](rattling) (drum beating)
[00:01:07.310]Notice now we've got 22 faculty members
[00:01:10.060]in six different departments in arts and sciences.
[00:01:12.570]We've got seven in History, six in English,
[00:01:15.500]three in Modern Languages, two in Poli-Sci,
[00:01:17.800]two in Psych, and two in Sociology.
[00:01:21.240]I remember the days when we had nine or 10.
[00:01:25.310]And so, we're really expanding, we're doing some reverse
[00:01:28.510]colonization in arts and sciences as we speak.
[00:01:34.160]And we've got quite a few majors and minors.
[00:01:37.440]Notice the majors are 33 credit hours.
[00:01:40.600]You can major in Ethnic Studies, per se,
[00:01:44.076]or you can major in Latin American Studies,
[00:01:47.666]or as we like to call it, LAMS.
[00:01:52.863]Say it with me, LAMS, it has this nice,
[00:01:56.095]warm internal feeling.
[00:01:59.800]I think you'll agree.
[00:02:03.845]Or, you can minor in Ethnic Studies, again,
[00:02:08.500]Latin American Studies, African American Studies,
[00:02:12.930]African Studies, US Latina/Latino Studies,
[00:02:17.420]or Native American Studies. (rattling and drum beating)
[00:02:20.973]Whew, that's a lot of minors.
[00:02:25.430]Also in the works are two new minors,
[00:02:27.700]and the first one's Environmental Justice.
[00:02:29.830]I kind of like Linda Hogan's definition.
[00:02:32.570]Environmental Justice is the fact that
[00:02:34.600]what Western civilization has done to the environment,
[00:02:37.390]and to poor people of color as one and the same thing.
[00:02:40.840]The other one we're excited about is Racial Justice,
[00:02:42.800]Equity, and Inclusion.
[00:02:44.670]A key component of this course
[00:02:46.720]will be a course already in the works, already okayed,
[00:02:50.830]How to be Antiracist.
[00:02:54.260]This is in stark contrast to some of UNL's older courses,
[00:02:58.957]"How to be a Racist". (rimshot)
[00:03:02.260]Note that double majors are also very doable.
[00:03:04.250]So if you're majoring in Spanish, Poly-Sci,
[00:03:06.670]History, Economics, Business, maybe you're planning a future
[00:03:10.570]in Central or South America,
[00:03:12.640]a LAMS double major would be very helpful.
[00:03:15.890]Also, a double major in Ethnic Studies, or LAMS,
[00:03:18.690]or any of these minors look good on a graduate application,
[00:03:21.730]if that's in your future.
[00:03:25.550]So you might ask yourself,
[00:03:26.737]"What connections does my current major have
[00:03:29.137]"with ethnicity and diversity?"
[00:03:31.940]It may be obvious, or you might be surprised.
[00:03:33.900]How might one of these majors or minors
[00:03:35.360]fruitfully support it?
[00:03:38.230]When I give this talk in-class, I ask for students
[00:03:43.050]who already signed up,
[00:03:45.825]and have them give testimony, as it were.
[00:03:50.890]So the next question is, "Why would I do such a thing?"
[00:03:55.550]Well, we have two main reasons for this,
[00:03:56.860]number one's money, the bottom line.
[00:04:00.360]it's a small world out there, it's a global village,
[00:04:02.300]it's a global economy, and of course an educational
[00:04:04.270]background in ethnic and cultural diversity is a big leg up.
[00:04:08.840]If you are one of those budding capitalists
[00:04:10.440]majoring in Business, ECON, et cetera, well,
[00:04:14.786]here's even more incentive.
[00:04:19.080]In terms of an Ethnic Studies major, perhaps,
[00:04:22.380]one of our flyers lists the following,
[00:04:25.692]Politics, that venerable field, Journalism,
[00:04:29.410]how about the legal and justice systems?
[00:04:31.330]I think they need our help.
[00:04:34.250]But again, it goes well beyond the double major.
[00:04:38.190]I think in terms of the potential benefits of our minors
[00:04:41.940]as crucial supplements to almost any other major,
[00:04:44.440]especially in the humanities and the social sciences.
[00:04:50.230]One of the experts in diversity
[00:04:51.620]came and talked to us a few years ago,
[00:04:53.660]and the two points that I mostly was impressed with:
[00:04:58.840]Number one, diversity is good for business.
[00:05:03.870]What do you mean by that, Tom?
[00:05:07.492]Ask the NBA, ask the NFL,
[00:05:11.228]ask Amazon.com and Nike,
[00:05:14.811]when they made the Washington Football Team
[00:05:17.830]change their name.
[00:05:20.260]The second point she made that really struck home,
[00:05:22.790]diversity actually makes us smarter.
[00:05:26.020]If you've taken a few years of foreign language, even,
[00:05:28.600]I mean, you know exactly what she means.
[00:05:32.070]But the second reason is probably
[00:05:34.760]the one that most of our faculty joined
[00:05:37.890]Ethnic Studies for, for that matter.
[00:05:39.290]I think that's a Robert E. Lee statue up there.
[00:05:44.090]We wonder if that statue's still up.
[00:05:47.380]So think about the recent news.
[00:05:48.670]You may have heard of Black Lives Matter,
[00:05:51.120]the Confederate statues controversy,
[00:05:52.850]the NFL kneeling controversy.
[00:05:56.010]How about the ongoing US immigration question
[00:05:58.180]with Latin American children in cages?
[00:06:00.950]Recent reports that down there,
[00:06:03.440]we're talking forced sterilization of the women?
[00:06:07.140]How about sports teams with native names,
[00:06:09.949]like The Washington Redskins?
[00:06:14.270]Well, they're gone.
[00:06:16.300]It only took 10 years of my memes on Facebook to force them
[00:06:20.080]to see the error of their ways.
[00:06:22.180]Of course, I had a little help from Nike and Amazon.
[00:06:29.590]Finally, how about COVID-19's disparate impact
[00:06:33.960]upon the very groups we've been talking about
[00:06:37.740]in this PowerPoint?
[00:06:39.950]If you have experienced any deep emotions
[00:06:41.750]regarding such social justice issues,
[00:06:44.060]this is your chance to make a difference in the real world.
[00:06:49.970]Hey, this class probably counts
[00:06:51.440]towards at least one of our majors and minors.
[00:06:54.240]In some cases, it's usually two or three.
[00:06:57.890]I don't know what class you're taking.
[00:07:01.585]Ask your professor.
[00:07:05.961]Or, ask me.
[00:07:07.440]Any questions?
[00:07:09.560]Hmm, I don't hear any.
[00:07:11.730]Well, if you think of one later, email me.
[00:07:16.122]There you go, there, and thank you very much for your time.
[00:07:19.520](upbeat Latin music)

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