Ethnic Studies

Another short paper for my Multicultural Literature in North America class.


Ramon A. Gutierrez examines the evolution of Ethnic studies in American Universities in his article entitled “Ethnic Studies: Its Evolution in American Colleges and Universities.” He first explains that Ethnic studies are now a discipline, a unique and specific understanding of the studies themselves.

The first representation of Ethnic studies comes during the 1960s civil rights movements that brought more Ethnic groups to universities. At first, this was seen as a democratizing project because educational institutions created these separations due to political demand. The influx of these new students had these classes taken out of their other homes in other disciplines “where race and ethnicity were pathologized, problematized, or exoticized.”

These programs never seemed to gain ground because of the fact that some faculty members were chased away and some left on their own. Faculty members in these programs were asked to do more than the average faculty because they needed to accomplish more tasks due to the remediation in these programs. Other faculty left academia completely to get away from this and to pursue other tasks.

I found it interesting that these programs were also subject to a form of discrimination in that government quotas were subverted. For example, the hiring of “upper class Argentines and Peruvians” satisfied Hispanic hiring goals. These programs seemed doomed to be tainted.

Then several educational voices expressed a desire to merge the separate studies. These studies should move horizontally across social, cultural, and historical trends. These should focus on common trends and experiences among the Ethnic studies. This way, educational institutions are not limited to specific groups but can strengthen the studies across a wide variety of cultures and perspectives.