Departmentalize Ethnic Studies at Stanford (DESAS) Petition for Student Support
[1 min, for Stanford students only]
Ethnic studies is the study of marginalized racial-ethnic groups such as Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous peoples as well as their intersectional identities. Apart from increasing long-term student engagement, attainment, and retention in K-higher education (Sleeter, 2011), ethnic studies can de-center white racial frames and center marginalized voices, practices, and histories.
Since their founding (AAAS in 1968 and CSRE in 1997), ethnic studies programs at Stanford have been under resourced and under valued. Every community center, ethnic themed dorm, and ethnic studies program had to be fought and demanded for by students. Today, we are building off a long legacy of student organizers and activists and fighting for the departmentalization of ALL ethnic studies programs at Stanford.
Why departmentalization:
--Ethnic studies departments would be able to hire tenured faculty whose first priority is their ethnic studies department
--Faculty retention
--Ethnic studies PhD students
--More POC mentors for students
--Attract more scholars who are leaders in their fields but don't currently want to work at Stanford because our ethnic studies programs are not as strongly supported as the departments at other universities
--More classes (Native American studies methods? Race and technology studies? Caribbean literature? Afrolatinx studies? Pilipinx studies?)