Views on BC Ethnic Studies Diverge

After a semester filled with discussion of issues of diversity and education, Barnard College is grappling with how best to address race and ethnicity in an academic context.

In a resolution last week, Barnard’s Student Government Association urged the Committee on Instruction to create a comparative ethnic studies major at the college, shedding light on an already vigorous debate between students who believe that the study of race and ethnicity demands its own major and faculty who say that existing departments and programs suffice.

For the past several months, the COI, responsible for formulating educational policy at Barnard, has been assessing and reconsidering the place of race and ethnicity within the college’s curriculum. Controversies last semester—including a string of hate crimes and the hunger strike—sparked University-wide student concern that prompted heated discussions at Barnard in the form of SGA-sponsored town hall meetings.

Students, faculty, and administrators now face the task of incorporating their multiple visions into a single course of action. While students say they perceive a lack of opportunity to pursue ethnic studies and are pushing for the creation of a new major, administration and faculty recommend a reassessment of courses already available first.

“The topic of ethnic studies has a cyclical nature,” Dean Dorothy Denburg said. “It has come up in the past before, but ... is now the most robust it has ever been, given that we have really brought it into the appropriate arena and have been talking about it on an ongoing basis in the COI.”

According to Associate Provost and COI Chair Flora Davidson, the creation of the department of Africana Studies 15 years ago marked a deliberate effort by the COI to increase the discussion of power dynamics. Davidson acknowledged that scholarship in the field has progressed since and said that the COI must now reevaluate Barnard’s position on ethnic studies.

Recent discussions among the representative council of SGA have appealed to the complaints of many students who say that Barnard has little to offer in ethnic studies. “Students really aren’t getting lessons about power dynamics in their classes,” SGA Vice President for Communications Kate McNamara, BC ’08, said.

Students interested in ethnic studies expressed particular disappointment in Barnard’s limited course offerings.

“Barnard needs a major that interrogates power, power dynamics, and equality, including race, gender, and class,” SGA Representative for Diversity Svati Lelyveld, BC ’08, said.

“I think the campus climate last semester stands as proof that there are issues regarding race here,” a participant in last semester’s hunger strike, Aretha Choi, BC ’10, said. “There needs to be an academic space to talk about race as a social construction.”

It is because of students like Choi, currently going through the lengthy, bureaucratic process of creating her own major in ethnic studies, that SGA called for the creation of a formal comparative ethnic studies major.

While administration and faculty members have said they support recent student initiatives, they stressed the complexity of the issue of ethnic studies. Some suggested that, before creating a new major, Barnard should evaluate courses already offered.

Davidson said students might not be aware of the many courses on race and ethnicity that already exist. For this reason, COI has been inventorying Barnard’s course offerings to be included on a separate page in the course catalogue.

“Drawing up that list is an important first step,” Davidson said. “Let’s see what we have because you can’t launch a major unless you have the courses to make it happen.”

Davidson added that the COI has asked for funding for faculty workshops focusing on race, ethnicity, and power. “Faculty can’t teach what they don’t know. It’s unfair to expect them to change what they teach without giving them the background to do it,” she said.

As for the faculty, there appears a concern that related majors, like American studies and Africana studies, may suffer from the addition of the new major.

Jennie Kassanoff, associate professor of English and director of the American studies department, said that a track on race and ethnicity already exists within the American Studies major. “The college could do a better job of explaining to students ... the rich diversity of courses ... that are open to students to take either within American studies, within Africana studies, or even within something else,” Kassanoff said.

Kim Hall, director of Africana studies at Barnard, expressed similar reservations that adding an ethnic studies major would “ghettoize” the field. “I find myself in the vexing position of being a Director of Africana studies and a specialist in race theory who has significant reservations about the current call for ... an ethnic studies major,” Hall wrote in an e-mail.

Hall stressed that the Africana studies department already serves as a center for dialogue on issues of diversity. She also expressed surprise that the American studies department “has not been more central to this conversation” of “questions of ethnicity, racial formation, and power in the U.S.”

To address the concerns of Barnard students and faculty, SGA—with the support of Denburg, Provost Elizabeth Boylan, and the COI­—is working to organize an information session on the topic. According to SGA President Laura Stoffel, BC ’08, the event, tentatively scheduled for early April, will feature an ethnic studies scholar who will clarify the meaning and potential of such a major.

“I welcome SGA’s offer to bring a scholar to campus to consult with groups of students and faculty about courses and majors that deal with race and ethnicity,” Boylan wrote in an e-mail.

Despite apparent gaps in perceptions of the purpose of ethnic studies and its place in Barnard academics, students, administrators, and faculty will work together to reconcile their differences and find the best course of action for the college.

“There needs to be a vision about the major first, but we can do it,” Denburg said. “If there’s the will, there are the course offerings.”

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