With a new director at its helm, Columbia’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) is now evaluating its role on campus and preparing to make program-wide changes. Soon, three separate majors could join together as one revamped academic track.
The Center oversees the University’s interdisciplinary program, now home to three undergraduate majors—Asian American Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, and Latino Studies.
The aims and operations of CSER have been in flux for many years, and in November 2007, it fell under public scrutiny when a handful of Columbia students staged a hunger strike on campus, demanding expansion and reform to Columbia’s ethnic studies program. Since this time, CSER has been making administrative and institutional changes—though not necessarily a direct result of the student protests.
Two years later, with Frances Negrón-Muntaner as the new director of CSER, the Center is once again rethinking its efforts.
A native of Puerto Rico, Negrón-Muntaner, who was appointed in July, 2009, received her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Puerto Rico, a master’s degree in film and anthropology from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University. Prior to being named director, she taught Latino and Caribbean literature and culture.
One of her new initiatives, which she said came out of a CSER faculty retreat, calls for the Center to orient itself around a single major, rather than the three majors currently offered. The plan will be submitted in six to eight weeks to the University and undergo administrative review.
“The idea is that with a single major, every student will get the same core experience, and then be able to organize the rest of their studies around either a thematic idea or the traditional ethnic studies track,” Negrón-Muntaner said. “We are opening up to people not interested in organizing ethnic studies in the traditional way.”
Amber Ha, CC ’12, who has yet to declare a major but is considering a comparative ethnic studies program, said, “I like the idea of the program being more thematic. ... It allows you to use comparative ethnic studies as a lens for a more focused theme, which is exactly what I would like to do.”
Samantha Jackson, a GS student studying African studies and conflict resolution in international affairs, agreed, saying, “It gives students who are not interested in a traditional track an opportunity to explore the program.”
A year after a two-course core requirement for the major was instituted, CSER is awaiting University approval for a new expanded core including an introductory course, a colonization-decolonization course, a methodology and theory course, and a new language requirement. There has also been administrative support for a comprehensive indigenous peoples and Native American program.
“I think every university that calls itself a university should have faculty and space for the study of indigenous peoples and cultural production,” Negrón-Muntaner said. “It is vital to foster a dynamic intellectual community around this issue, and within it, issues of colonialism, settlement, political uncertainties, and sovereignty.”
Ester Raha Nyaggah, GS, wrote in an email, “Considering that at the core of the existing CSER programs ... is the study of difference, then Native American studies are relevant to the understanding of such difference.”
Negrón-Muntaner said that the Center has also established better processes for deliberation and review, with new bylaws and a strong governance structure. This move also prompted plans to develop a student body group that works with faculty members to address concerns. Faculty have more input in this new system, she said.
Jean Howard, the chair of Columbia’s department of English and comparative literature, who has been on the advisory board for CSER for several years, said that these changes could make a big difference.
“Every good unit needs a governance system because it keeps things rule-governed and orderly,” she said. “Every organization needs bylaws, and the fact that CSER hasn’t really had any is really a drawback.”
Though the center is specific to Columbia, Barnard, which lacks any ethnic studies programs, also has a role in these systematic changes.
Janet Jakobsen, the director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women and the interim associate dean of faculty diversity at Barnard, has been working with Negrón-Muntaner on collaboration.
She said that the “relations between Barnard and Columbia vis-à-vis ethnic studies are happening both amongst students and amongst the faculty.”
She added that she seeks to create a consortium amongst Africana studies, American studies, and women’s studies at Barnard, forming the basis for a concentration or minor in ethnic studies.
Negrón-Muntaner has been working with the Barnard faculty to enable Barnard students to take more CSER-related courses at Columbia as well.
“The resource issues are very different—we’re a small college and they’re a major research university,” Jakobsen said. “I think that the back and forth is very healthy.”
Currently, an introductory ethnic studies course is being drafted between the two faculties that would be incorporated into the core of Barnard and Columbia’s programs.
Negrón-Muntaner also seeks to expand the faculty to provide more course offerings.
Natalie DeNault, BC ’10, who studies in the Center’s program, said that this is important. “I understand that course offerings depend on course enrollment numbers, but it is difficult to be an ethnic studies major given the limited offerings,” she wrote in an email. “CSER needs to get more non-transient faculty.”
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy