Commitee on Ethnic Studies Makes Strides

To the editors:

The Crimson’s reporting on ethnic studies has been somewhat uneven this current academic year. After some incomplete coverage in the fall, an excellent account of the issues by Richard T. Halvorson ’03 appeared in February (News: “Protests Targets Course Diversity,” Feb. 13) and a thoughtful opinion piece by Stephen E. Sachs ’02 (Column: “A Different Ethnic Studies,” March 5) followed. These pieces notwithstanding, some older and some more recent reporting and opinion pieces deserve a few words of clarification. In addition, this occasion presents an opportunity to suggest where ethnic studies may be headed in the future.

The central task of the ad hoc Committee on Ethnic Studies, created more than a decade ago by former Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, is to provide course enrichment, most particularly in the areas of Native American, U.S. Latino, and Asian American studies. The Committee’s Ethnic Studies Guide and its website, www.fas.harvard.edu/~cesh, give an overview of the committee and explain its central objective. In the past years, the committee has helped to create and fill one full Faculty position in Asian American studies, has invited numerous visiting Faculty members and has organized several conferences.

In the current academic year, the committee has worked very hard at its main task in collaboration with various departments and programs. It has been able to line up 14 new courses that will be offered at Harvard College from the fall of 2002 to the spring of 2005 in such fields as English, folklore and mythology, government, history, history of art and architecture, sociology and women’s studies.

In fall 2002 Janet C. Berlo will teach History of Art and Architecture 298,“The Museum and ‘the Other’: How Western Institutions Construct Non-Western Worlds,” and History of Art and Architecture 274, “Issues of Gender and Representation in Native American Art History;” L. Gish Jen ’77 will teach a seminar in women’s studies, Women’s Studies 165, “Advanced Creative Writing: Beyond the Navel,” and David Weber will teach two courses in history, a lecture course “Southwestern America: Indians, Hispanos, and Anglos,” and a conference course “Historical Approaches to the Hispanic Southwest, 1540-1848.” In fall 2003 and spring 2004 C. Matthew Snipp will teach two courses in sociology, “American Indians in Comparative Historical Perspective” and “American Indians in Contemporary Society;” and in fall 2004 Louis Owens will teach two courses on Native American literature in English and folklore and mythology. In 2005 Luis R. Fraga ’77-’78 will teach two courses in the government department. These courses will do much to complement existing Faculty strength. Since invitations are now being extended long in advance, this will create better opportunities for interested students to plan ahead.

In order to strengthen excellence in undergraduate academic work on ethnic studies, the committee has created a new $1,500 senior thesis prize for the best thesis on an ethnic studies subject in any discipline.

The committee initiated and supported a Harvard graduate student-organized conference, “Doing Ethnic Studies,” which took place all day on Feb. 28, 2002, at which Harvard graduate students from a great variety of fields who are engaged in ethnic studies projects presented some of their research questions and findings to interested undergraduates.

The Committee on Ethnic Studies organized several meetings with students, invited students to its deliberations, and, in addition to pursuing its other tasks, has been examining the possibility of instituting an “ethnic studies certificate.” Some students working through the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations have made the desire for the creation of such certificates a focal point of their engagement. The committee appreciates the dedication and interest of these students, and is committed to encouraging engagement with ethnic studies among the widest number of students. As a Faculty committee, however, and not an instructional committee in its own right, the Ethnic Studies Committee is not certain that it can yet guarantee the levels of advising and course offerings necessary to sustain such a certificate; it is also not entirely persuaded that “certificates” (which, by Faculty decision may not be mentioned on transcripts, diplomas or in any official college publication) are the best means of recognizing and encouraging student work in this field. It plans to discuss this question further and may in the future approach the Educational Policy Committee to discuss how students might be able to concentrate on the interdisciplinary and comparative study of ethnicity within existing concentrations.

Among other possibilities imaginable at Harvard are the collaboration with centers that are focused on particular regions or groups, the introduction of particular “ethnic studies” tracks within existing concentrations and the consideration of ethnic studies in the context of a concentration in American studies more generally. The committee has initiated some preliminary conversations about these and other ways of exploring new and official curricular venues for ethnic studies content.

Ethnic studies at Harvard is a field that can be studied well and under the guidance of outstanding, internationally recognized faculty members in all the relevant disciplines. The Committee on Ethnic Studies will continue to provide course and curricular enrichment, create intellectual incentives, stimulate interdisciplinarity, support faculty and student initiatives and seek ways through which Harvard can put its own stamp on how it names, conceptualizes and teaches ethnic studies.

Werner Sollors

April 1, 2002

The writer is Cabot professor of English literature and professor of Afro-American studies. He is also chair of the Committee on Ethnic Studies.