In this course, students will learn why gender, race, or ethnicity in isolation is insufficient to conceptualize either individual or social identity. Students will learn to think critically about their own gendered, racial, and ethnic identities as well as identify the social and cultural factors that shape and contribute to each. The way in which gender, race and ethnicity intersect will be given prominent attention in this class. The course will examine the ways in which gender, racial, and ethnic identities are dynamic and experienced differently, depending on how they combine in any one person. The course will also explore how these and other identities dynamically connect to system of power, or how efforts to achieve justice in any one of these areas must take the others into account.

In this course, students will demonstrate an understanding of how constructions of race, gender, and ethnicity shape cultural rules and biases and how these constructions vary across time, cultures, and societies. In addition, students will critically analyze the ways in which these forms of identity raise questions of justice with regard to access and participation in communal life. This class may address gender, race, and ethnicity in any context, including the contemporary United States, other nations or cultures, and/or various points in history.