Coursework for AY '25-'26

The gateway requirement for all CCSRE majors can be satisfied by taking CSRE 100. Find below course descriptions and '25-'26 schedule information for the gateway requirement.

CSRE 100: Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (formerly CSRE 196C)

Course Description

This course covers foundational concepts in the creation and application of racial and ethnic categories and identities, the perception of racialized others, and the systematic institutionalization of racialized hierarchies. We take a transdisciplinary approach to interrogating how socially constructed differences are realized and how they may be transformed. Key topics include: ideology, identity, intersectionality, discrimination, hierarchy, solidarity, resistance, reproduction, and transformation.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter 
Time: Mon./Wed. 1:30pm-2:50pm 
Units: 5
Instructor: Jordan Starck (PI) 
 

The capstone requirement can be satisfied by completing CSRE 200X or, for honors students, CSRE 201X, 201Y, and 201Z. Find below course descriptions and '25-'26 schedule information for the capstone courses.

CSRE 200X - CCSRE Senior Seminar 

Course Description (200X)

This capstone course will support students in the completion of a public-facing research project or research paper that draws upon disciplinary expertise and training in race studies. A public-facing research project will translate social sciences and/or humanities research on race and ethnicity into genres that reach diverse audiences. After developing a research question and consulting with a faculty project mentor, students will conduct research, identify their audience, design a public-facing research project, and compose a substantial writer's memo that includes a literature review, an analysis of genre and audience, a discussion of stakes, and a plan for distribution. The process will require students to explore and justify the parameters of their projects, including their methodologies and academic interlocutors. Note that this course is required for CCSRE majors in their final year of study who are not enrolled in CSRE 201X, including those who opt to write honors theses in departments or programs outside of CSRE.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter
Time: Th. 10:30am-11:50am
Units: 5
Instructor: Thaomi Michelle Dinh (PI)

CSRE201X, Y, and Z - CCSRE Honors Seminar 

Course Description (201X)

This Honors Thesis Seminar is a research- and writing-intensive course designed to help students reflect on CCSRE coursework and to apply their skills, knowledge, and political commitments to the investigation of a focused research question. Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity at Stanford¿and the field of ethnic studies broadly¿has always worked to ground academic research in political practice, embodied experience, and community, and it systematically challenges disciplinary boundaries in the academy. Our weekly meetings and assignments are designed to scaffold your ongoing work with a faculty advisor and to facilitate our coming together as a community of writers, researchers, artists, and activists. Together, we will build a trusting, supportive community of scholars and work to gain clarity about the stakes of our methodologies and research projects.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter
Time: Tues. 3:00pm-4:20pm
Units: 5
Instructor: Magie Ramírez

Course Description 201Y

This Honors Thesis Seminar is a research- and writing-intensive course designed to help students reflect on CCSRE coursework and to apply their skills, knowledge, and political commitments to the investigation of a focused research question. Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity at Stanford¿and the field of ethnic studies broadly¿has always worked to ground academic research in political practice, embodied experience, and community, and it systematically challenges disciplinary boundaries in the academy. Our weekly meetings and assignments are designed to scaffold your ongoing work with a faculty advisor and to facilitate our coming together as a community of writers, researchers, artists, and activists. Together, we will build a trusting, supportive community of scholars and work to gain clarity about the stakes of our methodologies and research projects.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Winter Quarter
Time: Tues. 3:00pm-4:20pm
Units: 5
Instructor: Magie Ramírez (PI)

Course Description 201Z

This Honors Thesis Seminar is a research- and writing-intensive course designed to help students reflect on CCSRE coursework and to apply their skills, knowledge, and political commitments to the investigation of a focused research question. Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity at Stanford¿and the field of ethnic studies broadly¿has always worked to ground academic research in political practice, embodied experience, and community, and it systematically challenges disciplinary boundaries in the academy. Our weekly meetings and assignments are designed to scaffold your ongoing work with a faculty advisor and to facilitate our coming together as a community of writers, researchers, artists, and activists. Together, we will build a trusting, supportive community of scholars and work to gain clarity about the stakes of our methodologies and research projects.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Spring Quarter
Time: Tues. 3:00pm-4:20pm
Units: 5
Instructor: Magie Ramírez (PI)

All CCSRE majors must take two of three comparative core courses (CSRE 101A, 101B, or 101C). Find below course descriptions and '25-'26 schedule information for the comparative core courses.

CSRE 101A: Indigeneity and Colonialism

This course charts processes of imperialism and colonization and their joint impact on indigeneous peoples worldwide. By looking at the history of colonialism with a focus on its impact on indigenous communities and other communities of color through the processes of conquest, slavery, genocide, the exploitation of human and natural resources, and the legacy of colonization embedded in contemporary systems of oppression, students will gain an understanding of the complexity of these systems, as they continue to impact marginalized communities in the Americas, Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Trans-Pacific region, and the Middle East. The course concludes with studies in decolonial projects and the emergence of epistemologies from the Global South as methods for countering the histories of empire and colonization.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter
Time: Tues./Thurs. 1:30pm-2:50pm
Units: 5
Instructors: Ramón Saldívar (PI), Michael Wilcox (PI), Alexa Russo (TA) 

CSRE 101B: Institutions and Inequities

This course offers frameworks for understanding institutional racism, racial capitalism, and the historical and contemporary ways through which these forces reinforce and maintain racial inequity across a variety of social sectors (e.g., health, media, education, criminal justice, and the environment). At the end of this course, students will be able to identify how race is institutionalized, how racialized institutions are interconnected, and how institutional violence can be combated.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Winter Quarter  
Time: Mon./Wed. 10:30am-11:50am
Units: 5 
Instructor: Thaomi Michelle Dinh (PI) 
 

CSRE 101C: Resistance and Liberation

This course investigates strategies for racial and economic liberation by analyzing past and present social justice movements. Students will be exposed to theoretical frameworks for liberation (e.g., abolition, resistance, mutual aid, rematriation) and engage with how they are applied. At the end of this course, students will better understand how liberation can be achieved and will be able to apply anti-racist theory to their work at Stanford and beyond.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Spring Quarter
Tues./Thurs. 1:30pm-2:50pm 
Units: 5
Instructor: Magie Ramírez (PI) 

To satisfy the research and methodology requirement, all CCSRE majors must complete at least one of the following courses (min. 3 units and for a letter grade). Find below when each will be offered for AY '25-'26.

Autumn Quarter

• COMM 106: Communication Research Methods
• COMM 138: Deliberative Democracy Practicum: Applying Deliberative Polling
• ENGLISH 160: Poetry and Poetics
• HISTORY 200B: Doing Environmental History: Water Justice
• HISTORY 200MM Doing Historical Memory
• HISTORY 200Y: Doing Colonial History
• POLISCI 150A: Data Science for Politics
• SOC 180B: Introduction to Data Analysis 

Winter Quarter

• ANTHRO 91A: Archaeological Methods
• ANTHRO 98C: Digital Methods in Anthropology
• ENGLISH 160: Poetry and Poetics
• ENGLISH 161: Narrative and Narrative Theory
• ENGLISH 184E: Literary Text Mining
• FEMGEN 103: Feminist and Sexuality Studies Theories Across the Disciplines Graduate Seminar
• HISTORY 200A: Doing Legal History
• HISTORY 200D: Doing the History of Science and Technology
• HISTORY 200F: Doing Microhistory
• PUBLPOL 105: Empirical Methods in Public Policy 

Spring Quarter

• ANTHRO 91: Method and Evidence in Anthropology
• ANTHRO 93: Prefield Research Seminar
• DATASCI 154: Data Science for Social Impact
• ENGLISH 161: Narrative and Narrative Theory
• HISTORY 200BG: Doing History: Biography as History
• HISTORY 200DE: Doing the History of Death and Disease
• HISTORY 200GH: Doing Gender History
• PUBLPOL 105: Empirical Methods in Public Policy
• PUBLPOL 155: Data Science for Social Impact
• SOC 180A: Foundations of Social Research
• URBANST 123B: Community Engaged Research - Principles, Ethics, and Design 

CCSRE students must complete at least one community-engaged learning (CEL) course or co-curricular experience that centers issues of race, ethnicity, and inequality. This requirement may be fulfilled by enrolling in a Cardinal course, completing a CCSRE Undergraduate Fellowship, or participating in an Alternative Spring Break. The CEL requirement may be fulfilled by courses that also fulfill other degree requirements (e.g, a Methodology course may also count toward the CEL requirement). 

Below are CEL courses offered for AY '25-'26. Students who wish to meet the CEL requirement through a co-curricular experience (e.g. research fellowship) should fill out this form.

NATIVEAM 112: Muwekma Community Engaged Learning, Cultural Heritage and Native Plants Garden Field Project 

Course Description

Indigenous Ecological Knowledge refers to the Indigenous knowledge related to human beliefs, practices and experiences embedded in specific locations. There are multiple versions of such knowledge based on the unique relationships of individual communities with a focus on California Native Communities (Specifically the Muwekma Ohlone tribe). We will explore environmental justice movements, sacred lands and medicines, climate change adaptation, resiliency, the effects of colonization on Indigenous food systems and ecological restoration. We will examine the ways in which Native Peoples responded and adapted to settler colonialism, dispossession, cultural genocide, and the rise of the 'Ranchosphere' in California. We will foreground the voices of Indigenous scholars and scientists. This course will allow students interested in working with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe to engage in Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) through (CEL) Community Engaged Learning. This CARDINAL COURSE draws from the knowledge and support provided by The HAAS Center. NOTE: Native Am 112 can be taken for up to 3 units and is not repeatable. Native Am 12 is a repeatable project-based lab that can be taken for 1-2 units. No more than 5 units of Native Am 12/112 can be counted toward a CCSRE major or minor.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter
Time: Fri. 12:30pm-2:50pm
Units: 3
Instructor: Michael Wilcox (PI) 

CSRE 125E: Shades of Green: Exploring and Expanding Environmental Justice in Practice

Course Description

Historically, discussions of race, ethnicity, culture, and equity in the environment have been shaped by a limited view of the environmental justice movement, often centered on urban environmental threats and separated from other types of environmental and climate advocacy. This course will seek to expand on these discussions by exploring topics such as access to outdoor spaces, definitions of wilderness, inclusion in environmental organizations, gender and the outdoors, the influence of colonialism on ways of knowing, food justice and ethics, and the future of climate change policy. The course will also involve a community partnership project. In small groups students will work with an environmental organization to problem-solve around issues of equity, representation, and access. We value a diversity of experiences and epistemologies and welcome undergraduates from all disciplines. Since this is a practical course, there will be a strong emphasis on participation and commitment to community partnerships. Students who are fully engaging with community-based projects should take the class for 4 units. Additional project roles may be considered for students taking the class for 3 units, with consent of instructors. This course requires instructor approval, please submit an application by March 5th at midnight. Application available at https://forms.gle/2kRJFRyfwopWcBeT9

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Spring Quarter
Time: Tues./Thurs. 1:30-2:50pm
Units: 3-4
Instructor: Sibyl Diver (PI)

CSRE 146B: Community Engaged Research - Principles, Ethics, and Design

Course Description

This course is designed to support students planning to participate in community engaged research experiences during the summer 2023 term. Course materials and discussions will promote deep engagement with, and reflection on, the principles, practices, and ethics of community engaged research as a unique orientation to scholarly inquiry and social action that centers the interests and assets of the communities with whom researchers partner. On a practical level, the course will help students develop or clarify a collaborative research design process and build professional and project-specific skills in consultation with their mentors and community collaborators. This is a required course for students participating in the Haas Center for Public Service Community-based Research Fellows Program, but enrollment is open to all Stanford students. We particularly encourage the involvement of students who will be participating in partnership-based research activities over the summer.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Spring Quarter
Time: Wed./Fri. 3:00pm-4:20pm
Units: 3
Instructor: Clayton Hurd (PI)

CSRE 199: Community-Based Fellowship Practicum

Course Description

This course is designed for 2024 CCSRE undergraduate summer fellows and students approaching CCSRE capstone projects in 2024-25. Our communal objective is to provide scaffolding, support, and space for critical reflection as students develop an outline and timeline for their summer or capstone project; build a foundation of knowledge, skills, and strategies to facilitate their project's success; and invest in relationships with their community partners, mentors, and peers. Rooted in critical race studies, this course is also meant to support students in learning about the varieties, limits, and possibilities of racial justice work in and beyond the academy. CCSRE undergraduate summer fellows need to sign up for the second part of this class, CSRE 199B, in the following fall quarter.

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Spring Quarter
Time: TBD 
Units: 3
Instructor: TBA

CSRE 245: Understanding Racial and Ethnic Identity Development

Course Description

This seminar will explore the impact and relative salience of racial/ethnic identity on select issues including: discrimination, social justice, mental health and academic performance. Theoretical perspectives on identity development will be reviewed, along with research on other social identity variables, such as social class, gender and regional identifications. New areas within this field such as the complexity of multiracial identity status and intersectional invisibility will also be discussed. Though the class will be rooted in psychology and psychological models of identity formation, no prior exposure to psychology is assumed and other disciplines-including cultural studies, feminist studies, and literature-will be incorporated into the course materials. Students will work with community partners to better understand the nuances of racial and ethnic identity development in different contexts. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)

Schedule for AY '25-'26

Autumn Quarter 
Time: Wed. 1:30pm-4:20pm 
Units: 3-5 
Instructor: Teresa LaFromboise (PI) 

Students majoring in Asian American Studies, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, Jewish Studies, or Native American Studies are also required to take core curriculum in their respective major. Below are major core offerings for '25-'26.

Asian American Studies Major Core

ASNAMST 100: Introduction to Asian American Studies

Course Description: What is meant by the term Asian American? How have representations of Asian Americans influenced concepts of US citizenship and belonging? What are the social and political origins of the Asian American community? This course provides a critical introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Asian American studies. Drawing on historical, creative, and scholarly texts, the course examines the history and possibilities of Asian American community. To do this, we place the Asian American experience within a transnational context, paying particular attention to the ways that Asian American lives have been shaped by the legacies of US wars in Asia and by the history of US racism. In the process, we examine the role that representations of Asian Americans have played in shaping the boundaries of US citizenship and belonging. Throughout the course, we utilize our discussions of Asian American racialization and community formation to think critically about the social and political ramifications that the designation Asian American entails.

Autumn Quarter
Time: Tues./Thurs. 12:00pm-1:20pm
Units: 4
Instructor: Thaomi Michelle Dinh (PI) 

Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies Major Core

CHILATST 100: Introduction to Latinx Studies

Course Description: What does it mean to be Latina/o/e/x? What meaning does ‘Latinidad’ hold in 2025? How has the current regime impacted Latine movements, organizing and solidarity on the ground? In this course we will explore the colonial and imperial relations that have fueled migration from countries across the Americas to the United States, as well as the distinct experiences and geographies of Latine peoples in the US. To make sense of Latine presence in this country, we must first think historically and transnationally to understand the US’s role as an imperial power throughout the Americas. Together we will read foundational texts of Latinx studies, as well as feminist, queer, Afro and Indigenous Latinx writings and critiques to disentangle how the “Latino/a/e/x” identity exists in relation to other identities within the US national project. Additionally, we will develop a political economic analysis of structural inequalities that Latine communities face, and trace the emergence of Latinx social movements and political struggles. We will ruminate on the sights and sounds of Latinx cultural production, and analyze the role of art in Latine political imaginings. Lastly, we will spend time in the Stanford archives learning about local Latinx political movements, and consider what liberatory movements are emerging from Latinx communities at present.

Autumn Quarter
Time: Tues./Thurs. 10:30am-12:20pm
Units: 5
Instructor: Magie Ramírez (PI)

Jewish Studies Major Core

JEWISHST 115: Understanding Jews

Course Description: This discussion-based course will give students an opportunity to explore the constellation of religious, ethnic, national, cultural, artistic, spiritual, and political forces that shape Jewish life in the 21st century. Drawing on historical documents, classical texts, and contemporary events, this course will give students from any background an opportunity to ask hard questions, deepen their own understandings, and challenge their conceptions of what makes Jewish life 'Jewish.' No matter where you went for Sunday school - church, synagogue, the woods, or nowhere at all - this course is a chance to question what you know, and interrogate how you came to know what you know about Jews, Judaism, and Jewish culture.

Autumn Quarter
Time: Tues. 5:30pm-7:20pm 
Units: 3
Instructor: Ari Kelman (PI)

Native American Studies Major Core

NATIVEAM 100: Decolonizing Methodologies: Introduction to Native American Studies

Course Description: This course provides students with an introductory grasp on major concepts, theoretical highlights, and important figures in Native American and Indigenous Studies, also known as American Indian Studies or First Nations Studies. The discipline emerged in the United States during the late 1960s when Native student-activists demanded the inclusion of their histories alongside the dominant white settler narratives in universities educational catalog. By examining historical and legal documents, storytelling accounts, images, films, and literary works, students will explore a diverse range of themes and perspectives, gaining an understanding of Native American cultures, histories, and contemporary lifeworlds. The course emphasizes materials from relevant sources produced by and about Natives to foster critical thinking and analysis. It also aims to cultivate an appreciation for the richness and complexity of Native American experiences while introducing major concepts, theoretical highlights, and important figures in the field of Native American Studies. Throughout the course, students will explore the global development of the discipline from a pan-Indian perspective, discussing keywords, histories, politics, disciplinary concerns, and the recent "decolonial turn" within academia. By the end of the course, students will have an introductory understanding of key disciplinary jargon, methodological research, and constitutive issues in Native American Studies.

Winter Quarter
Time: T Th 1:30pm-2:50pm
Units: 5
Instructor: Michael Wilcox (PI)