http://www.upei.ca/arts/diversity-and-social-justice-studies

Co-ordinator

Ann Braithwaite, Professor

Diversity and Social Justice Studies responds to the 21st century need for critical engaged citizens who can, through a variety of theoretical languages and methodologies: a) analyze the social construction of identity categories (gender, sexuality, race, class, age, national status, able-bodiedness, species, etc.) and recognize the difference these make to what we know and how we act in the world; b) recognize, address, and challenge global inequities around these intersecting identity categories and analyze how social structures and policies, systems of representation, and everyday practices perpetuate these inequities; c) see the world from multiple points of view at the same time, recognize the complexity of contexts in shaping those views, and understand that both knowledge and visions of social change are always situated and partial. Diversity and Social Justice encourages interdisciplinary approaches and the development of intercultural knowledge through a variety of courses and other learning opportunities. Courses are divided into three clusters: 1) Gender and Sexuality; 2) Identities and Social Structures; 3) Cultural Representation and Analysis.

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MAJOR IN DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE STUDIES

Students pursuing a Major in Diversity and Social Justice must complete 42 credit hours (14 courses) in the DSJS Program. These credit hours must be composed of both of the following required courses: either 1120, 1130, or 1140, AND either 4040 or 4070, in addition to 12 other courses from the list of DSJS courses, with at least four courses (12 semester hours) at the 3000-4000-level. Students must take a minimum of 2 courses from each of the 3 thematic clusters.

(NOTE: As per Academic Regulation #1 h), all undergraduate degree programs require successful completion of IKE-1040, one of UPEI-1010, 1020 or 1030, and a Writing Intensive Course.)   

1. Core Courses:

One of:
DSJS 1120 – Identities and Place
DSJS 1130 – Bodies and Power
OR
DSJS 1140 – Love and Labour
AND one of
DSJS 4040 – Theorizing Social Justice
DSJS 4070 – Social Change, Social Justice

2. DSJS and cross-listed courses:

THEMATIC CLUSTERS

Gender and Sexuality

DSJS 2050 – Sex and Culture

DSJS 2420 – Philosophies of Love and Sexuality (Philosophy 2420)

DSJS 2610 – Sex, Gender and Society (Sociology/Anthropology 2610)

DSJS 3140 – Masculinities

DSJS 3850 – Women in 19th Century Canada (History 3850)

DSJS 3860 – Women, the Law, and Civil Rights in 20th-Century Canada (History 3860)

DSJS 3910 – Psychology of Women (Psychology 3910)

DSJS 3950 – Gender and Violence (Psychology 3950)

DSJS 4060 – Queer Theory

DSJS 4350 – Gender and Sexuality (Psychology 4350)

DSJS 4660 – Advanced Topics in Gender and Sexuality (English 4660)

Identities and Social Structures

DSJS 2630 – Global Youth Cultures (Sociology/Anthropology 2630)

DSJS 2750 – Social Inequality (Sociology/Anthropology 2750)

DSJS 2920 – Work and Society (Sociology 2920)

DSJS 3120 – Race and Whiteness

DSJS 3130 – Disability Studies

DSJS 3520 – Kinship and Family (Anthropology 3520)

DSJS 3550 – Globalization (Sociology/Anthropology 3550)

DSJS 3710 – Community Based Ethical Inquiry (Philosophy 3710)

DSJS 3810 – Women, Economics and the Economy (Economics 3810)

DSJS 3840 – Cultural Psychology (Psychology 3850)

DSJS 4010 – Medical Anthropology (Anthropology 4010)

DSJS 4130 – Psychology of Social Class (Psychology 4130)

DSJS 4310 – Minority/Ethnic Groups and Canadian Multiculturalism (Sociology/Anthropology 4310)

Cultural Representation and Analysis

DSJS 2120 – Food and Cultural Studies

DSJS 2130 – Monsters, Freaks, Zombies, and Cyborgs

DSJS 2210 – Writings by Women (English 2210)

DSJS 3320 – Knowledge and Culture (Anthropology 3320)

DSJS 4020 – Cybercultures (Anthropology 4030)

DSJS 4560 – Visual Culture (Sociology/Anthropology 4560)

DSJS 4740 – Britain in the 20th Century (History 4720)

REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINOR IN DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE STUDIES

A minor in DSJS will be recognized when a student has successfully completed twenty-one (21) semester hours of courses in DSJS, including either 4040 or 4070 and six additional courses from anywhere on the list of DSJS courses. At least six semester hours must be at the 3000 or 4000 level.

DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE STUDIES CORE COURSES

1090 SPECIAL TOPICS
Creation of a course code for special topics offered by Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the 1000 level.

1120 IDENTITIES AND PLACE
This course explores how identity categories such as gender, race, disability, sexuality, and national identity are reflected in a range of everyday places. Using examples such as housing, schools, workplaces, restaurants, malls, prisons, streets and sidewalks, and nations and borders, it analyzes how place always reflects embedded assumptions about who belongs or is included, and who doesn’t belong or is excluded. Place offers a way to further investigate how identity matters in the everyday world as well as to question how those identity categories are constructed and perpetuated.
PREREQUISITE:  None
Three hours a week

1130 BODIES AND POWER
This course examines how bodies are assumed to reflect identity categories such as gender, race, sexuality, disability, and national identity. It explores bodies as sites for the definition and regulation of those categories, as well as for resistance to them. Through diverse examples such as exercise and diet culture, hair, public places, sex work, and others, this course considers how and why bodies matter, and challenges the everyday assumptions made about bodies and power relations of all kinds.
PREREQUISITE:  None
Three hours a week

1140 LOVE AND LABOUR
This course explores how labour and work, both paid and unpaid, are part of all social relationships, and how they both reflect and are impacted by identity categories such as gender, race, national identity, sexuality, and disability. It asks how and why some kinds of work are paid and validated while others are unpaid and even made invisible, examining issues such as whose work is recognized and whose isn’t, and exploring the consequences of this for different groups of people.
PREREQUISITE:  None
Three hours a week

2050 SEX AND CULTURE
This course examines theories of sex and sexuality, and investigates how they are central to the construction and function of contemporary North American culture. It explores how boundaries between ‘approved of ’ and ‘disapproved of ’ sexual behaviours reflect larger social and cultural concerns, and challenges students to think beyond the more usual either/or ways of identifying sexuality. Topics covered include the social construction of heterosexuality, changing definitions of lesbian/gay/bisexual, challenges posed by intersexed and transgendered people, sex work, sado/masochism, pornography, monogamy, intergenerational sex, internet and ‘cybersex,’ and the ‘feminist sex wars.’
PREREQUISITE: None
Three hours a week

2090 SPECIAL TOPICS
Creation of a course code for special topics offered by Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the 2000 level.

2120 FOOD AND CULTURAL STUDIES
This course introduces students to the study of food and its relationships to identities (i.e., gender, race, class, national status), the body, community, popular culture, and politics. It explores how historical and contemporary food production and consumption practices both construct and reflect these relationships and examines such questions as how food is defined and how it circulates to both perpetuate and challenge power and privilege.
Cross-listed with Foods & Nutrition 2310.

2130 MONSTERS, FREAKS, CYBORGS, AND ZOOMBIES
From the history of freak shows and ethological exhibits, to contemporary body enhancement practices, to pop culture representations of undead or superhuman bodies, this course explores how bodies deemed monstrous or freakish have always been tied to assumptions about race, disability, gender, sexuality, and national identity. It examines how the body’s appearance and actions exposes the limits of who and what is considered normal and, even, human, asking how bodies have been sites for the control and regulation of groups of people as well as ways to challenge and affirm identity categories.
PREREQUISITE:  None
Three hours a week

2210 WRITINGS BY WOMEN
(See English 2210)

2420 PHILOSOPHIES OF LOVE AND SEXUALITY
(See Philosophy 2420)

2610 SEX, GENDER AND SOCIETY
(See Soc/Anth 2610)

2630 GLOBAL YOUTH CULTURES
(See Soc/Anth 2630)

2920 WORK AND SOCIETY
(See Sociology 2920)
PREREQUISITE:  Any 1000-level DSJS course or permission of the instructor.

3090 SPECIAL TOPICS
Creation of a course code for special topics offered by Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the 3000 level.

3120 RACE AND WHITENESS
This course explores how “whiteness” as both an identity and a structure has long been overlooked, denied, and disavowed—and with what consequences. Topics addressed include: the idea of race and definitions of racism; multiple and conflicting ideas about whiteness; everyday whiteness, white normativity, and white privilege; “white fragility” and “white guilt”; and white anti-racism and “good white people.”
PREREQUISITE:  Second Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor
Three hours a week

3130 DISABILITY STUDIES
This course questions the more usual way of understanding disability as an individual attribute of the body/mind that needs to be either accommodated or fixed. Disability Studies, as both a theoretical approach and a political movement, requires us to think complexly about compulsory able-bodiedness/able-mindedness, challenging and destabilizing how bodies and embodiment, norms and the “normal,” and access and inclusion have been understood.
PREREQUISITE:  Second Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor
Three hours a week

3140 MASCULINITIES
This course challenges the ways in which masculinity is assumed to be an extension of the male body and a way to describe men’s social status, roles, and attributes, exploring these connections and examining their consequences. In maintaining that there is nothing universal or natural about masculinity, this course examines how masculinities are constructed and perpetuated, asking to whom these ideas refer and how that matters for different groups of people.
PREREQUISITE:  Second Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor
Three hours a week

3320 KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURE
(See Anthropology 3320)
PREREQUISITE: DSJS 1090 and one other DSJS course at the 2000 level or higher.

3520 KINSHIP AND FAMILY
(See Anthropology 3520)
PREREQUISITE:  Second Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor.

3550 GLOBALIZATION
(See Soc/Anth 3550)
PREREQUISITE:  Second Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor.

3710 COMMUNITY BASED ETHICAL INQUIRY
(See Philosophy 3710)

3810 WOMEN, ECONOMICS AND THE ECONOMY
(See Economics 3810)

3840 CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
(See Psychology 3850)

3850 WOMEN IN 19TH CENTURY CANADA
(See History 3850)

3860 WOMEN, THE LAW, AND CIVIL RIGHTS IN 20th-CENTURY CANADA
(See History 3860)

3910 PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN
(See Psychology 3910)

3950 GENDER AND VIOLENCE
(See Psychology 3950)

4010 MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
(See Anthropology 4010)

4020 CYBERCULTURES
(See Anthropology 4030)

4040 THEORIZING SOCIAL JUSTICE
This capstone course provides the opportunity for students to explore theories and practices of “social justice,” broadly defined, across a number of contexts. It examines how social movements and identity groups have defined this concept, investigates, through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, processes towards this goal in addition to barriers inhibiting its attainment.
PREREQUISITES:  Third Year standing or above and at least 3 other DSJS courses, or permission of the instructor.

4060 QUEER THEORY
This course introduces students to the body of academic thought known as “queer theory” and to the ways it challenges assumptions about sexuality, gender, and other identity categories. It focuses on queer theory’s historical foundations, genealogies, and contributions, as well as on contemporary uses of and debates in the field.
PREREQUISITES:  Third Year standing or above and at least 3 other DSJS courses, or permission of the instructor.

4070 SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL JUSTICE
This course explores some of the major concepts that circulate in movements for social change and social justice. It asks how people negotiate conflict, ambivalence, complicity, and contradiction in working both within and against a number of organizations and institutions. It focuses on questions of representation and asks whose voices, whose stories, and whose knowledges are included and excluded in complex social movements, investigating how that matters and to whom in working towards social justice.
PREREQUISITE:  Third Year standing or above and at least 3 other DSJS courses, or permission of the instructor
Three hours a week

4090 SPECIAL TOPICS
Creation of a course code for special topics offered by Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the 4000 level.

4130 PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL CLASS
(See Psychology 4130)

4310 MINORITY/ETHNIC GROUPS AND CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM
(See Soc/Anth 4310)

4350 GENDER AND SEXUALITY
(See Psychology 4350)

4560 VISUAL CULTURE
(See Soc/Anth 4560)
PREREQUISITE:  Third Year standing or above, or permission of the instructor.

4660 ADVANCED TOPICS IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY
(See English 4660)

4720 SOCIAL JUSTICE IN PSYCHOLOGY
(See Psychology 4720)

4910-4920 DIRECTED STUDIES
These advanced courses for qualified students (see Academic Regulation 9) provide for supervised independent or group study of specialized topics in Diversity and Social Justice Studies. The topics offered must be approved by the Coordinator of Diversity and Social Justice Studies and the Dean of the Faculty.
PREREQUISITE: At least three DSJS courses or approval of the instructor
Three hours a week