Identity & Intersectionality

Instructor: Mia Smith-Bynum

Students in this interdisciplinary course will explore multi-layered issues related to privilege and oppression through their own life experiences via exposure to theory, research, film, memoirs, and current events. Students will evaluate and critique common assumptions about the meaning and experiences of privilege and oppression using Intersectionality theory as a guiding framework. The human experience related to various social identities (i.e., race, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, religion, age, and ability) will be addressed.

GenEd: SCIS, DSHS, DVUP
Offered in: Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Required/Optional: Required

Instructor: Heidi Scott

What has been the setting of your life? Suburbs? Cities? A farm? We may be used to thinking of environments as equal access across society, since everyone is free to visit our National Parks or spend a day at the beach. But there are striking ways in which identity affects our habitat. Race, class, gender, sexual preference, and other markers have strong influences on where we spend our time, what we eat, and how we work and relax. Suburbs, cities, wilds, and farms are not just physical places, they exhibit histories of social inclusion and exclusion. For example, the money and free time of affluent Americans serves as a portal to leisure spaces that would be inaccessible to working-class Americans who lack the ability to take time off, drive or fly long distances, and pay for it all. We’ll profile identity ecology through the poetry of African American urban naturalists, essays of wilderness-loving men like Edward Abbey, the comedy of white environmental outrage, and the racialized class tensions in resorts like Aspen, CO. This survey will support students in-depth personal exploration of identity ecology in a collaborative video media project.

GenEd: DSHU, DVUP
Offered in: Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Required/Optional: Optional

Instructor: Monica Kearney

In August 2018, the American Psychological Association released guidelines regarding the best practices for researchers and mental health professionals when working with boys and men. Many reacted with the question, “are we treating masculinity as a mental health issue?” This course aims to answer that question by taking a historical perspective on how American society has viewed masculinity from the beginning of psychology as a field of study until present day. An intersectional approach will be taken to better understand how race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socioeconomic status impact men and masculinity. We will address the questions: How does one prove their manhood? How much of masculinity is biological versus socialized? What experiences are unique to men? And how do psychologists and mental health professionals understand and address mental health concerns among men?

GenEd: DSHS, DVUP
Offered in: Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Required/Optional: Optional