Chicana/o/x Studies
Program Director
program web page
Degree
Minor–Chicana-Chicano Studies
Required courses in this program of study may have prerequisites. Reference the course description section for clarification.
Undergraduate Program
The Chicana/Chicano Studies Program (CCSP) employs a dual mission at Eastern Washington University (EWU). The program’s first mission is to significantly contribute toward enhancing opportunities for the participation of Chicana/o/x students in higher education. This mission is achieved by vigorously recruiting Chicana/o/x students and providing the essential support needed for experiencing a positive and successful academic career at Eastern Washington University. A parallel CCSP mission is augmenting EWU’s goal in addressing diversity by providing all students, regardless of ethnicity, with a critical Chicana/o/x Studies curriculum resulting in a comprehensive and holistic understanding and appreciation of Chicana/o/x communities. Furthermore, CCSP is committed to enacting initiatives that sustain the Program’s dual mission. The Chicana/Chicano Studies Program is therefore structurally divided into three distinct components.
Recruitment
The Chicana/Chicano Studies Program’s student recruitment efforts involve various activities aimed at encouraging Chicana/o/x students to pursue educational opportunities at EWU. Specific recruitment activities include visiting high schools and community colleges, staging university based student visitations, participating in educational and community career fairs, utilizing Spanish media (radio, television, and newspapers) to disseminate information about educational opportunities at EWU, networking with Chicana/o/x community organizations and other recruitment-focused initiatives.
Support Services
The Chicana/Chicano Studies Program also provides a variety of academic and non-academic support services for students. Such services include academic advising, scholarship information and awards, mentor relationships, culturally based initiatives, linkages for tutoring needs, a college orientation class, and other related student support services. More specifically, the CCSP assists student transition into the university by advocating on the students’ behalf with other university departments and offices (i.e., Admissions Office, Financial Aid, Housing and Residential Life). Through its bilingual (English/Spanish) website, the CSSP assists students and their families in becoming familiar with university practices, regulations, and culture.
The Chicana/Chicano Studies Program also closely collaborates and supports the CAMP Program (College Assistance Migrant Program), which is designed to recruit and retain migrant students during their first year of college at EWU.
Chicana/Chicano Studies
The CCSP offers a Chicana/Chicano Studies academic minor designed to provide all students, regardless of ethnicity, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and critical understanding and appreciation of Chicana/o/x communities. The CCSP focuses primarily on Chicana/o/x historical experiences of colonization and neo-colonization, economic and cultural contributions to US society, and historical and contemporary struggles, movements, and strategies of resistance and survival.
The CCSP’s offerings include lower and upper division coursework. The Chicana/Chicano Studies minor provides students with an inclusive and interdisciplinary understanding of Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x experiences in the U.S. Specifically, the minor prepares students for the rapidly changing demographic trends in the U.S. and provides critical knowledge and skills necessary to contribute to an ethnically and culturally diverse society. In tandem with this approach, the CCSP offers a rigorous academic program of study that prepares students for graduate and professional schools and employment in community based organizations or the non-profit industrial complex. While the minor is especially suited for those students applying to graduate school, teaching in K–12, educational administration including counseling psychology, social services positions, business, educational, and community organizing, the minor is appropriate for all major fields of study given the discipline’s interdisciplinary foundation. Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x are now the largest racial ethnic groups in the nation, and the Chicana/Chicano Studies minor will provide all students with an appreciation of the history, political, social, and cultural realities of Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x in contemporary U.S. society.
Please refer to the required courses and course descriptions section for additional information about CCSP’s curriculum.
Other CCSP Activities
CCSP is committed to networking and establishing contacts with all communities throughout the state of Washington with a particular focus on educational related issues, initiatives, and policies. CCSP’s outreach efforts include public seminars, lectures, and cultural and art exhibitions. On a national level, CCSP actively participates with the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, a professional academic association, which promotes research and teaching relevant to the Chicana/Chicano community, and MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social-Women Active in Letters and Social Change) the largest academic organization in the US for Chicanas, Latinas, and Indigenous students and faculty.
Chicana and Chicano Studies Courses
CHST 196. EXPERIMENTAL COURSE. 1-5 Credits.
Experimental
CHST 197. WORKSHOP, SHORT COURSE, CONFERENCE, SEMINAR. 1-3 Credits.
Workshop, short course, conference.
CHST 199. DIRECTED STUDY. 1-5 Credits.
Directed Study
CHST 201. LATINAS/OS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY. 5 Credits.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
The course examines the experience of the other Latinos (Hispanics) in the United States: Puerto Rican, Cuban American and Central Americans. The course presents a brief historical overview of their entrance in American Society and a demographic comparison of significant socio-economic variables of the groups. The primary focus of the course is to examine the social and cultural profile of the Puerto Rican, Cuban and Central American groups in the U.S.
CHST 202. INTRODUCTION TO CHICANA/O/X CULTURE. 5 Credits.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
A study of Chicano culture providing an initial overview of its roots and conflicts. Specific components discussed are cultural identity, customs, language, psychology and the arts.
CHST 204. WEALTH AND POVERTY IN LATINO COMMUNITIES. 5 Credits.
This course introduces students to the political economic processes by which wealth and poverty are created and maintained in the U.S. with a particular focus on how they impact Chicano and Latino communities. The focus will be comparative and transnational and will critically examine theories used to explain poverty and wealth as well as trace the trajectory of capitalism’s impact on Latino communities.
CHST 218. CHICANO HISTORY. 5 Credits.
Cross-listed: HIST 218.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course offers a study of Chicano history from the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, to the present. Specific themes discussed include the Mexican American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, the economic, political and social conditions after the Anglo-American conquest of the southwest, Mexican immigration to the U.S., Chicano labor history, the Chicano movement and other Chicano themes.
CHST 230. CHICANAS AND LATINAS IN THE U.S.. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: CHST 202.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course provides a description and analysis of the experience of Chicanas and Latinas in the United States. First, the course presents a review of Chicana studies scholarship and the evolution of Chicana feminist theory. Next, the course examines the historical, cultural, political and social-economic themes which define the experience of Chicanas/Latinas in the United States.
CHST 233. RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE ECONOMY IN THE U.S. AND LATIN AMERICA. 5 Credits.
Satisfies: a BACR for social sciences.
This course aims to introduce how inequality is reflected, constructed, and reproduced through notions of race, class, and gender in the US and Latin America. This course asks: what are the forms of knowledge, practices, institutions, and values that have an informed power structure that influences the meaning of racial, ethnic, and economic relations in the U.S. and Latin American? What is power, and how does it help us understand how inequality between the U.S. and Latin America is structured?
CHST 296. EXPERIMENTAL. 1-5 Credits.
Experimental.
CHST 297. WORKSHOP, SHORT COURSE, CONFERENCE, SEMINAR. 1-5 Credits.
Workshop, short course, conference.
CHST 310. CHICANX/LATINX IN THE U.S. MEDIA. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course surveys how Chicanx/Latinx have been depicted in film, news, television and other media formats in the U.S. The course examines Hollywood depictions of the Latino/a experience in the film industry from the early period of U.S. cinema to contemporary representations; the depictions of Latinx in television and the news; and the emergence of Chicanx/Latinx early documentary to the full length dramatic feature film.
CHST 320. CHICANX-LATINX POLITICS IN U.S. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
The purpose of this course is to study the political reality of Latinxs in the U.S.: a heterogeneous group made up largely of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban American origin and other groups (Central and South Americans). This class examines the Latino population in terms of its orientation to the political system, its institutions, actors and their participation in the electoral process.
CHST 325. SOCIAL CHANGE AND ACTIVISM THROUGH MEDIA. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: CHST 202 or CHST 218.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course introduces students to social liberation movements' theories and practices and struggles to be free through change. The focus will be on the liberation struggles, movements, and social change of historically marginalized populations in the U.S. Students will also examine the role of media in today's political activism.
CHST 330. LATINO IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S.. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course is a historical overview of Latino immigration from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Special attention is given to the largest Latino sub groups in the United States. Students examine the social phenomenon of labor migration and immigration from Latin America in the context of political, economic and national inequalities. The transnational character of Latino immigrants and its political, economic and cultural contributions to sending and receiving nations are covered.
CHST 331. LATINO FAMILY IN THE U.S.. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: CHST 202, CHST 218 or HIST 218, or permission of the instructor.
This course presents an overview of the general direction of current scholarship on the Chicano/Latino family, with a special focus on basic familial structure and the dynamics of change. First, the course examines traditional interpretations and methodologies and suggests alternative theoretical perspectives. Second, the course examines research issues such as familism, machismo, gender roles, parenting, divorce, family violence, aging, immigration and family, and public policy on family life.
CHST 335. GENDER REVOLUTION AND POLITICS. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–global studies.
This course provides a broad overview of the political mobilization of women in Latin American conflicts which challenged authoritarian regimes and other systems of power by exploring the participation of women in revolutionary movements as combatants and other supporting and leadership roles. Systems of oppression such as masculinity, patriarchy, militarism and violence within the Latin American and U.S. context are examined.
CHST 340. LATINA/O COMMUNITIES IN THE U.S.: FIELD RESEARCH IN CHICANA/O, LATINA/O STUDIES. 5 Credits.
The course is designed to accomplish three objectives. First it presents a typology of the diverse experience of Latina/o Communities in the US. Second, it provides a critical review of theories and methods utilized in the study of the Chicano-Latino experience in the US. Third it incorporates a field research component whereby students apply the theories and methods examined in the course.
CHST 378. SURVEY OF SPANGLISH LITERATURE. 5 Credits.
Cross-listed: ENGL 378.
Notes: CHST 202 or CHST 218 recommended.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 or equivalent.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course provides students with an overview of the historical development and current Spanglish literature trends produced by Latina/o/x communities in the U.S. and Latin America. The class provides students with an understanding of the concept of Spanglish from a sociolinguistic perspective to, in turn, be able to analyze oral and written literary works. Students are expected to read, discuss, and apply theoretical techniques through various written assignments.
CHST 396. EXPERIMENTAL. 1-5 Credits.
Experimental
CHST 398. SEMINARS. 1-5 Credits.
Seminar
CHST 400. CHICANO AND LATINO HEALTH. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: CHST 201.
This course provides an overview of current theories and research concerning the physical and mental health of Chicano/Latino populations in the US. Students will be introduced to domains of health resilience and health risk in U.S. Latino populations and consider how social and political-economic context, cultural based beliefs, and health behaviors come together to influence health outcomes.
CHST 405. CHICANO AND LATINO EDUCATION. 5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: CHST 201.
This course focuses on analyzing Chicano Latino Education within the context of the U.S. and its political-economic interests and system. The course attempts to provide an understanding of how historical, social, and political economic forces impact the U.S. Chicano/Latino educational experience. In addition, the course also connects the historical condition of Chicano/Latino education in the U.S., with contemporary issues and trends.
CHST 420. READINGS IN DECOLONIZATION. 5 Credits.
Cross-listed: IDST 420.
Pre-requisites: IDST 101 and CHST 202.
This course grounds students in the theory and concepts of colonization, decolonization and indigenous peoples in America, with brief comparisons with global indigenous peoples and experiences. Through that theoretical understanding, students examine and formulate ways in which decolonization can impact and be integrated into indigenous lives and communities in a meaningful way.
CHST 462. HISTORY OF MEXICO. 5 Credits.
Cross-listed: HIST 462.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 or permission of instructor.
This course addresses the history of Mexico in the national period, from the events immediately preceding the independence movement of 1810 to the present. Besides political and economic happenings, social and cultural processes will be considered through diverse prisms, including: racial friction; religion; elite and popular society; labor; art; women's and family history; environmental challenges; and urbanization. Students will also compose a substantial research paper.
CHST 495. INTERNSHIP/PRACTICUM. 1-5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: permission of the instructor, department chair and college dean.
CHST 496. EXPERIMENTAL COURSES. 1-5 Credits.
Experimental
CHST 498. SEMINAR. 1-5 Credits.
Chicano topics discussed from various disciplines including the humanities and social sciences.
CHST 499. DIRECTED STUDY. 1-5 Credits.
Pre-requisites: permission of the instructor, department chair and college dean.
An in-depth, independent research project.