ETHS 291: Critical Ethnic Studies
Professor Ongiri
Since its inception in the late 1960s, Ethnic Studies has provided an academic forum to question and understand race and ethnicity as major shaping forces in US politics and culture. From its roots in the civil rights movements of the sixties and seventies to its current iteration in university classrooms, Ethnic Studies has always sought to widen the lens of academic inquiry to include questions, perspectives and experiences of marginalized populations in the United States. Critical Ethnic Studies expands the perimeters of the Ethnic Studies project to include global perspectives while centering questions of genocide, decolonization and population
ETHS 491: Race and Crime in Popular Culture
Professor Ongiri
Narratives around crime and justice prevail in US popular culture. They range from the TV show Law and Order to true crime dramas such as Making of a Murder and The Tinder Swindler to music forms such as gangster rap. This class explores the role of race and racial formation in the construction of popular narratives crime, and considers issues such as Black mass incarceration, movements to defund law enforcement, and postwar changes in criminal justice culture.