CAS DIV Courses
CAS DIV Courses
These courses, with a “DIV” designation, are part of the AU Core Curriculum. They address issues of power, privilege, and inequality that are embedded in social, cultural, or economic hierarchies, including (but not limited to) those around race, ethnicity, class, ability, gender, and sexuality.
For a list of "DIV" courses across the university, please read the AU Core page.
| Course | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| AFAM-200 | African Americans in Diaspora | African Americans in the Diaspora (3) This course is an introduction to the study of African American history, culture, intellectual traditions, and social movements in the context of the African diaspora. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| AFAM-415 | Islam in America | Islam in America (3) When did the first Muslims arrive in North America, and how did they get here? Starting from the earliest colonial expeditions, Muslims have a longer and more impactful history in the Americas than is widely known. This course traces the history of Muslim people in the United States from the first known figures to the present day. Throughout, the course examines how Islam has played a significant role in shaping American religious practice and identity, along with the ways Islam and Muslims have been represented as a threat to the American project. Special attention is given to the ethnic, geographic, racial, and cultural diversity of American Muslims. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: AMST-415 and AWST-415. |
| AFAM-435 | Adv Studies in African Am Lit | Advanced Studies in African American Literature (3) Topics vary by section. Rotating topics on the movements, forms, and theories of African American literary and cultural expression from the Middle Passage to the present in historical context, with emphasis on research. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: LIT-435 and LIT-635. Repeatable for credit with different topic. |
| AMST-200 | American Dreams/American Lives | American Dreams/American Lives (3) This course explores the American Dream as a historically contingent concept that was crucial to the creation of national identity and social unity, but which has always been contested. The course centers marginalized perspectives and engages their alternative dreams and visions. Students analyze and synthesize multiple kinds of primary sources (such as speeches, fiction, film, music, art) and disciplinary perspectives (sociology, history, economics, cultural studies, ethnography) to better appreciate the diversity of U.S.-American lives and cultures. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| AMST-200 | American Dreams/American Lives | American Dreams/American Lives (3) This course explores the American Dream as a historically contingent concept that was crucial to the creation of national identity and social unity, but which has always been contested. The course centers marginalized perspectives and engages their alternative dreams and visions. Students analyze and synthesize multiple kinds of primary sources (such as speeches, fiction, film, music, art) and disciplinary perspectives (sociology, history, economics, cultural studies, ethnography) to better appreciate the diversity of U.S.-American lives and cultures. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| AMST-285/HLTH-285/WGSS-285 | Disability, Health & Normality | Disability, Health, and Normality (3) We use words like "disability," "health," and "illness" every day, and yet we rarely pause to consider how our understanding of what is normal influences how we understand the present and how we imagine futures. In this course, students explore questions related to disability from an intersectional, interdisciplinary perspective. Based on narratives and knowledges created by disabled people, ranging from scholarly works and life writing to vlogs, television shows, and art, students critically examine the history of Western medicine, law, politics, and culture. Subjects range from depression and anxiety to autism to spina bifida, as well as Deaf culture, chronic illnesses, and body size. Students gain a deeper understanding of how health, ability, and normality are concepts that can continue structural inequalities in our contemporary moment. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: HLTH-285 and WGSS-285. Usually Offered: fall. |
| AMST-385 | Mental Health & Neuroqueerness | Mental Health, Madness, and Neuroqueerness (3) Ideas about mental health, illness, and difference including therapy, self care, and mindfulness; autism, anxiety, and depression; ADHD, BPD, ODC, and PTSD; ASMR, medication, and substance use surround us every day. This course traces the longer histories of mental health discourses and encounters the lived experience of madness and neurodivergence. Centering the life stories and knowledge of those who have been labeled or claimed the label of mad, neuroqueer, and/or mentally ill, students critically examine how ideas about mental health and wellness are situated in systems of colonialism, white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. From the Mad Pride movement to neurodiversity, they learn about alternative ways of understanding different mental states and explore visions for a society that holds space for all of us. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: WGSS-385. Recommendation: AMST-285, HLTH-285, or WGSS-285. |
| ANTH-110 | Culture and Power | Culture and Power FA3 (3) This course explores how we can understand human social and cultural diversity, as well as related issues such as race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and inequality. It asks what is culture, how do we make sense of human behavior that appears to be radically different than our own, and how power relations shape human lives and human behavior. Students have an opportunity to practice the methodology of ethnography, which aims to understand the lives of others by living with and participating actively in their lives, thus attempting to see and experience the world as they do. Ultimately, the course shows how anthropology and related social sciences and humanities offer tools not just to better understand others but also to better understand oneself. AU Core Habits of Mind: Cultural Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall, spring, and summer. |
| ANTH-150 | Anthropology of Life in U.S. | Anthropology of Life in the United States FA4 (3) How should we make sense of the inequality that so marks life in the United States today? This course helps participants understand some of the multiple forms of inequality shaping U.S. life, including those along lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. The course examines the relationship between these inequalities and major phenomena shaping the past, present, and future of the United States, such as capitalism, slavery, relationships between the U.S. government and Native American peoples, imperialism, militarization, and war. The class links readings and discussions to significant current events and culminates in individual research and analysis employing anthropological and related socio-historical methods. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall |
| ANTH-150 | Anthropology of Life in U.S. | Anthropology of Life in the United States FA4 (3) How should we make sense of the inequality that so marks life in the United States today? This course helps participants understand some of the multiple forms of inequality shaping U.S. life, including those along lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. The course examines the relationship between these inequalities and major phenomena shaping the past, present, and future of the United States, such as capitalism, slavery, relationships between the U.S. government and Native American peoples, imperialism, militarization, and war. The class links readings and discussions to significant current events and culminates in individual research and analysis employing anthropological and related socio-historical methods. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| ANTH-210 | Race and Racism | Race and Racism FA3 (3) This course traces the development of the race concept, beginning with the emergence of "pre-racial" categories and continuing into the present period of "post-racialism." It examines the invention and development of race as an idea over time; how race and racism have operated in different geographic and historical contexts; the effects of racism; and large and small efforts to challenge racism. This course also examines how race has been mutually constructed with sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other essentialist forms of oppression. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall and spring. |
| ANTH-215 | Sex,Gender & Culture | Sex, Gender, and Culture FA3 (3) This course explores the role of sex, gender, and sexuality in shaping our lives and our world. Sex, gender, and sexuality are critical components of every aspect of societies globally. Yet, there is nothing inevitable or "natural" about the roles that sex, gender, and sexuality play in a society and in people's lives. Students will examine the multiple, fluid, changeable, ambiguous, and contradictory ways people around the world experience sex, gender, and sexuality. Readings will draw on peoples and cultures around the world with emphasis on non-normative sexualities and genders. Case studies will include gender fluidity, patriarchy and sexism, feminism, LGBTQI+ communities, trans, power, inequality, kinship, religion, the military, and the material effects of sex, gender, and sexuality. AU Core Habits of Mind: Cultural Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall, spring, and summer. |
| APDS-260 | Asian American Experience | Asian American Experiences (3) This interdisciplinary course explores the lives, thoughts, history, and cultures of Asian Americans by examining materials drawn from diverse fields including oral and immigration history, social theory, media, film, and arts. This class not only examines the lives of Asian Americans in the United States but also analyzes the effects of racial politics on Asian Americans as one among several marginalized racialized groups in our society. Racial prejudice, social oppression, political discrimination, and the creativity and resilience of Asian-American cultures and struggles are all explored. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: AMST-260. |
| ARTH-325 | Chinese Art | A History of Gender, Ethnicity and Class (3) Surveys visual and material culture of China from the perspective of globalization. Covering painting, calligraphy, decorative arts, and archaeological artifacts from the Neolithic period to the contemporary era, the course historicizes the construction of "Chineseness" and enhances student understanding of Chinese art from local and global perspectives. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: APDS-325. |
| ARTH-336 | African-American Art | African-American Art: Slavery to Social Justice (3) This course examines how and why black artists in the United States have used painting, sculpture, photography, print, and mixed media to assert and question personal, racial, and national identity. Spanning the eighteenth century through the present, topics addressed include the politics of craft, photography, abstraction, and museum display. Through lectures, discussions, and assignments, students develop visual literacy as well as knowledge of the important role the visual arts and popular culture have played in black history. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Grading: A-F only. Recommendation: ARTH-105 or ARTH-210. |
| BIO-151 | Representation in Biomed Rsrch | Representation in Biomedical Research (3) Biomedical research aims to prevent, treat, and cure human disease. But current knowledge does not equally reflect nor aid the full diversity of humans. This course describes basic concepts and technologies used in biomedical research and explores how power relations have shaped interpretations. Case studies describe how marginalized communities (based on ethnicity, gender, and others) have been excluded, misrepresented, or exploited, leading to disparities and mistrust of the health system. Through analysis of primary sources and popular press, students consider recommendations for change, and gain a better understanding of how biomedical research and healthcare impacts different communities. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. |
| CAS-260 | Ethical Ldrshp/Soc Inequality | Ethical Leadership and Social Inequality (3) How does one lead well in the context of structural injustice? Students examine this question through the lens of race and its intersections with identity markers such as gender, sexuality, class, and body size. Through the study of academic articles, films, and podcasts, students learn about the legacy of racism in the United States and how it is sustained and reproduced, as well as how activists and leaders from historically marginalized groups have practiced resistance to this social inequality. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. Restriction: Leadership and Ethical Development (Undergraduate Certificate). |
| DNCE-360 | Histories of Dance | Histories of Dance (3) This course introduces dance's development and contribution to global histories of the moving body. Students examine the sociopolitical, historical, and cultural forces and factors that have shaped the development, practice, dissemination, and documentation of dance, particularly in regard to race, gender, class, and power. Through reading, lecture, discussion, films, and solo and group projects, students engage with major stylistic trends, cultural influences, and principal artists and their work and also consider the complexities associated with documenting and writing dance histories. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| ECON-314 | Economic Inequality | Economic Inequality (3) This course covers the rise, fall, and rise of economic inequality in the United States. After discussing how to measure inequality, the course delves into major causes and consequences, including technology and the demand for skilled and unskilled labor, tax and transfer policy, "pre-distribution" issues about property rights, contracts and patents, changes in market competition, labor markets, unionization, housing markets, healthcare provision and financial markets. It pays careful attention to race and gender dimensions of inequality throughout the course and discusses policies to limit inequality and its consequences. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Prerequisite: ECON-100 or ECON-150. |
| ECON-316 | Pol Economy of Race in U.S. | Political Economy of Race in the United States (3) How does race affect the ways that individuals are included in or excluded from activities in the United States economy, and what are the impacts of these differences and how might equality of opportunity be increased? This course examines the political economy of race in the U.S. Through readings and examination of U.S. data, it examines the historical bases for differences in economic participation by race, how race is defined and measured by economists, its impact on outcomes in education and the labor market and two policy proposals to promote more equitable inclusion. Readings focus mainly on the experience of African Americans, but students are encouraged to bring other foci to the topic during the data work and individual papers. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Prerequisite: ECON-200. |
| HIST-208 | African American Hist: to 1877 | African American History: to 1877 (3) This course covers the Atlantic slave trade, the African presence in Colonial America, the American Revolution, nineteenth-century American slavery, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The course utilizes historical eyewitness accounts, maps, and popular culture to explore the arrival and historical journey of Africans from the Colonial and Revolutionary eras through the Civil War and Reconstruction. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
| HIST-209 | African Amer Hist:1877-Present | African American History: 1877 to Present (3) Beginning with a brief review of the Civil War and Reconstruction, this survey chronicles the history of African Americans to the present time. The course uses historical and literary texts and makes use of cultural resources such as films, recordings, art works, and museum exhibitions to explore the richness of this legacy and its impact on the development of American culture and history. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: spring. |
| HIST-245 | Modern Jewish Civilization | Modern Jewish Civilization (3) This survey course covers a broad range of Jewish political, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual history from the early modern period (approximately sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries) to the mid-twentieth century. Students encounter groups of Jews as diverse as the ultra-orthodox Hasidim, the founders of the Jewish enlightenment and Reform movements, bourgeois European women, and radical revolutionaries. Geographically and culturally, Jews have spanned the globe, reflecting the modes of dress, cooking, architecture, etc. of many countries and speaking over 30 specifically Jewish languages (which combine Hebrew with others) as well as the dominant languages of their home countries. The modern Jewish experience has encompassed both euphoria and despair, as in the mid-twentieth century with the Shoah (Holocaust) and the establishment of the State of Israel. This diversity is reflected in both classroom discussions and assignments. Through reading of primary documents from each time and place, students understand history in "real time," and critically analyze the social and political structures that exercised power over the lives of Jews and others in various communities. These lessons are reinforced with a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: spring. Grading: A-F only. |
| HIST-382 | Queer Literatures & Histories | Queer Literatures and Histories (3) Reading and analysis of texts on sexuality and gender from ancient writings to modern fiction, in a variety of genres (philosophical dialogue, drama, poetry, novel, short story), and putting them into dialogue with key historical and critical studies on the queer past. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: LIT-382 and WGSS-382. |
| HLTH-245 | Multicultural Health | Multicultural Health FA4 (3) This course examines the complex interaction between culture and health. Emphasis is placed on understanding cultural, social, and psychological determinants of health status, health-related behaviors, and health disparities. The effects of race, religion, social class, diet and lifestyle, gender roles, sexual orientation, acculturation, and migration on health behaviors and practices are explored. Students increase their own cultural humility and cultural competence through ongoing self-assessment, reflection, and discussion. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Usually Offered: fall. |
Showing 1 to 25 of 53 entries
Contact Us
Battelle-Tompkins, Room 200 on a map
CAS Dean's Office 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8012 United States