Cultural & Social Difference: Identity
This is the first of two courses focused on gender, race, and ethnicity. Faculty can choose their own topic, as long as it meets the learning outcomes. This course can be taught in any department and can count toward majors. This course must be completed in the first year and may not be used to satisfy a Way of Thinking.
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. Cultural and Social Difference: Identity must address gender, race, and ethnicity in the contemporary United States, though it can do this through the study of texts or data that are not primarily about the contemporary United States.
The ways in which gender, race, and ethnicity intersect must be given prominent attention in this class. An understanding of intersectionality requires recognizing that gender, racial, and ethnic identities are dynamic and that each is experienced differently, depending on how they combine in any one person. An exploration of intersectionality will also involve study of how these and other identities dynamically connect to systems of power. In other words, efforts to achieve justice in any one of these areas must take the others into account.
Requirement: one event related to gender and one event related to race and/or ethnicity must be incorporated into the syllabus. These could be Arts events but do not have to be.
Learning Outcomes
Collaboration 1
Students identify the different roles in the group, engage group members by acknowledging their contributions, articulate the importance of multiple and diverse perspectives in a group, and complete all individual tasks on time.
Gender 1
Students identify a diversity of gender identities. Students identify social and cultural factors that shape their own gender identities and how these factors influence their self- conception and worldview.
Race and Ethnicity 1
Students identify factors that shape their racial and ethnic identities and explain how these factors influence their self- conception and relationships to their communities.
Speak 1
Students organize a presentation with a central message that is partially supported by relevant material(s). Delivery techniques make the presentation understandable, although students may appear tentative or uncomfortable.
General Curriculum Information
In the Integrations Curriculum a course can be designated as either:
Any course carrying one of the above designations may also have one engagement^ (except for TE, CSD:I, LF, and LI, which cannot carry engagements):
Any course may satisfy the Quantitative Reasoning skill requirement.Any course (except courses that fulfill Theological Explorations, Theological Integrations, Learning Foundations, or any course with a THEO course number) may also satisfy the Benedictine Raven.Any course except INTG 100 Learning Foundations, CSD:I, INTG 105 College Success, and INTG 300 Learning Integrations may satisfy the WR designation.**
^Semester-length study abroad courses may carry both GL and EX.
*Classes entering the Fall of 2020 and 2021 are waived from the GL and BN requirements.**For classes entering in Fall 2022 onward.
Please note:
A. The committee understands that some courses may still be in development. Prompts that ask for examples of assignments seek information about the spirit of what students will do and instructors are not bound to the specific details (e.g. writing prompts) provided.
B. The committee includes faculty from a variety of disciplines. Please remember to briefly explain disciplinary terms, contexts, and/or texts to allow all the members of the committee to best understand how your responses address the question.
C. As you are answering these questions, please keep in mind that students will need to produce work to assess their fulfillment of the related learning outcomes if applicable.
The Cultural and Social Difference: Identity course is the first of two courses focused on gender, race, and ethnicity. To help the Committee understand how your course meets this focus, please answer the following question. Details on how the course meets the learning goals should be provided in the subsequent sections.
Please note: The same activity or assignment may serve to demonstrate how students will meet more than one learning objective or the component parts of a learning objective.
Event Requirement
The Cultural and Social Difference 1 course requires that one event related to gender and one event related to race and/or ethnicity must be incorporated into the syllabus. These could be arts events, but do not have to be.
