Race Matters

Race Matters is an interdisciplinary learning community for first-year students that focuses on race, ethnicity, and related matters (such as gender, sexuality, class, and religion) in the twenty-first century. Students take a sequence of three courses: one in the fall semester (RAMAT 110), one during January term (SOAN 121), and one in the spring semester (RAMAT 130). The thoroughly integrated curriculum of these three courses bridges the humanities and the social sciences, offering students a deep and broad engagement with race and ethnicity in the contemporary world. Race Matters students receive credit for four OLE Core requirements: the First-Year Seminar (fall semester), Power and Race (January term), Social Sciences (January term), and Writing and Rhetoric (spring semester). The three-course sequence includes a special section of SOAN 121 ("Introduction to Sociology") during January term.

Overview of the Program

Race Matters is an interdisciplinary, integrated linked-course sequence on an enduring and dynamic topic of considerable interest to students and society at large: the role of race in the twenty-first century, with a general though not exclusive focus on the United States. As the title of the learning community is meant to suggest, the subject is not merely “race” in its narrowest sense but a broader array of phenomena that could be called “race matters.” Many of these “race matters” concern the intersection of race with one or more related axes of identity, such as religion, class, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. For instance, Race Matters considers the experiences of Muslim Americans, South Asians, and Sikhs since 9/11; it examines the diverse communities, histories, and individual experiences grouped under broad labels such as “Asian American” and “Latinx”; it takes up the role of gender and sexuality within racial and ethnic communities, as well as within movements such as Black Lives Matter; it attends to shifting ideas about citizenship, immigrants, and refugees; it looks at the increasing visibility of self-identifying biracial and multiracial Americans; and it explores the role of geography, technology, changing demographics, and broader economic and political forces (such as globalization and nationalism) in shaping race matters in the present. 

Intended Learning Outcomes for the Program

Admission to the Program

Students apply to Race Matters after they are admitted to the college.  Each year about 19 first-year students are admitted to the program.  

Course Equivalents for OLE Core attributes

By successfully completing the Race Matters program, students fulfill the following OLE Core requirements:

• The First-Year Seminar
• Power and Race
• Social Sciences
• Writing and Rhetoric