Critical Race and Ethnic Studies B.A.

• Information and Policies
• Requirements and Planners

Information and Policies

Introduction Expand and Collapse

The B.A. program in critical race and ethnic studies (CRES) offers an interdisciplinary curriculum that enables majors to study the history of race and racialization both in the United States and across the globe and to learn how structures of race and racism have changed over time. By approaching race as a major ideological framework through which practices of power and domination as well as struggles for liberation and self-determination have been articulated and enacted throughout modern history and in the contemporary moment, our majors develop a deep understanding of how race and other modalities of power have informed the imagination and trajectory of social transformation and justice in the past and the present. The study of race in CRES yields critical insights into the social, political, cultural, and economic processes that have defined and shaped the modern era—colonialism, slavery, conquest, displacement, genocide, warfare, migration, creolization, criminalization, imprisonment, disenfranchisement, globalization, racial profiling, and post-9/11 security state policies. CRES engages with queer and feminist critique, decolonial thought, and analysis of labor in challenging asymmetrical and exploitative power relations, not only illuminating how race, racism, and racialization are socially reproduced in societies structured by dominance, but also fostering emergent and contestatory forms of knowledge and praxis. A commitment to structural transformation is grounded in intersectional approaches to difference (race, class, gender, sexuality, and caste) and defines the work we do.

 The CRES major allows students flexibility at the upper-division level to design an interdisciplinary course of study that enables a general overview of areas of interest, while selecting electives from multiple areas of specific research and career interests. Alternatively, they can engage deeply with a key area of focus, taking a number of courses in a particular area in order to develop expertise in it. For example, they may wish to focus on a social group (e.g., members of the African diaspora), on a discipline (e.g., history), on a social phenomenon (e.g., social movements), or on a methodological or theoretical orientation (e.g., theories of race, gender, and sexuality).

Through immersion in a program of study that is multidisciplinary, comparative, and transnational in scope, CRES majors develop a critical perspective on race, racial relations, and racial justice in the United States and beyond. CRES also helps students develop skills in critical thinking, comparative analysis, the application of social theory, research, communication, and writing so that they can act effectively in an ever-changing, complex, and culturally diverse world. A student with a bachelor’s degree in CRES will be well prepared for employment and continuing educational opportunities in the humanities, social sciences, law, medicine/public health, education, and international affairs and strongly positioned to pursue careers in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. 

Program Learning Outcomes Expand and Collapse

Students who complete the CRES major should emerge with the following skills, competencies, and knowledge:

Critical Frameworks

• Demonstrate deep knowledge of historical, contemporary, and intersectional perspectives on race and ethnicity.
• Demonstrate familiarity with different disciplinary methods applied to race and ethnicity.
• Demonstrate a critical perspective on institutional power and knowledge.

Communication

• Demonstrate ability to account for other people’s arguments, to formulate one’s own arguments, and to locate both arguments in the larger context of the field.
• Demonstrate ability to formulate an argument in alternative media, such as speech, audiovisual, digital, and other forms of non-written communication.
• Demonstrate writing effectively in the interdisciplinary field.

Research

• Demonstrate ability to design and implement a collaborative research project.
• Demonstrate ability to design and implement an independent research project.

Community Collaboration, Engagement, and Activism

• Demonstrate an understanding of the issues, ethics, and methods surrounding activist, collaborative, and community-based research projects.
• Demonstrate an understanding of collaborative knowledge that effectively integrates theoretical and experiential thinking about social justice.

Academic Advising for the Program Expand and Collapse

Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

CRES advising is held in Humanities 1, room 403 or via Zoom. Drop-in hours are posted on the CRES website. Students can make an appointment by using the Slug Success application found under Resources in their student portal (MyUCSC). 

Transfer students should consult the Transfer Student Information and Policy section for specific requirements.

Getting Started in the Major: Frosh Expand and Collapse

This major is not highly sequential or course intensive. Students interested in CRES may declare at any time, including in their junior and even senior year. Students are encouraged to begin taking courses toward the major in their first year. While specific courses are not required in order to declare, it's highly suggested, students will be enrolled in or have completed CRES 10 with a C, or it can be taken P/NP with a passing grade or better. (Please see the section "How to Declare a Major" for details.) All requirements of the major can be completed within two years. Although it is advisable to begin taking courses toward the major in the first year, it is not required.

Transfer Information and Policy Expand and Collapse

Transfer Admission Screening Policy Expand and Collapse

No major preparation courses are required prior to transfer; however, prospective students are strongly encouraged to complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or to complete all University of California, Santa Cruz, general education requirements before matriculation. Students who did not list CRES on their application are welcome to pursue the major.

Getting Started in the Major: Transfer Students Expand and Collapse

Transfer students are encouraged to declare the major and enroll in CRES 10 as soon as possible to be assured entrance into the required core courses. Transfer students are encouraged to take advantage of the Summer Session offering of CRES 10 to jump-start their academic career. Transfer students and students in exceptional circumstances may substitute an equivalent course with the department chair or undergraduate director’s approval. Students are recommended to make an advising appointment as soon as possible to plan their academic career.

Although rigorous, CRES major requirements are not numerous, and with guidance from a CRES advisor, they can easily be met during two years of study. The university also permits limited double-counting of upper-division electives, thus making possible for transfer students the pursuit of a double major in CRES and another field of study.

If you have completed prior college-level coursework in ethnic studies, American studies, or a similar field of study, please contact CRES advising as soon as possible and provide a copy of your unofficial transcript and course syllabi so the coursework can be reviewed for potential fulfillment of CRES major requirements. The CRES Department will consider, upon petition, which UC-transferable courses from other institutions are acceptable.

Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process Expand and Collapse

Major Qualification Expand and Collapse

Students may declare the CRES major at any time. Transfer students should consult the Transfer and Information Policy section above.

Appeal Process Expand and Collapse

A student may file an appeal with the CRES advisor within 15 days of the denial of major declaration. The CRES Department will notify the student and the college of the decision within 15 days of the receipt of the appeal.

How to Declare a Major Expand and Collapse

Students may declare the major by submitting a proposed Petition for Major/Minor Declaration to the department advisor. The major declaration should include a plan to complete CRES 10, CRES 100, and CRES 101 at the next possible opportunity. Students must complete all requirements for the major with a grade of P, C (2.0), or better.

Per campus policy, students must submit their major declaration no later than the third quarter of their sophomore year or, in the case of transfer students, no later than the second quarter of their junior year. CRES welcomes students who are pursuing more than one major or who are transferring from another major to declare after this time frame.

Letter Grade Policy Expand and Collapse

Students must complete all requirements for the major with a grade of P, C (2.0), or better,  Overall, no more than 25 percent of the UCSC credits applied toward graduation may be graded on a Pass/No Pass basis.

Course Substitution Policy Expand and Collapse

CRES is an interdisciplinary major that includes courses taught by faculty in other departments (see the Electives section below for a list of approved courses). Students who wish to substitute a course not on the electives list should complete the Petition for Course Credit form available on the CRES website and submit the completed form to CRES advising.   

Double Majors and Major/Minor Combinations Policy Expand and Collapse

The CRES major works very well as a double major with numerous fields of study such as anthropology; community studies; creative writing; feminist studies; film and digital media; education; environmental studies; history; history of art and visual culture; legal studies; linguistics; languages; literature; music; performance, play, and design; politics; sociology; and more.

Honors Expand and Collapse

CRES awards honors and highest honors in the major. Students are considered for honors and highest honors based on their cumulative GPA, calculated from grades earned in coursework and the senior exit requirement undertaken for completion of the major. For honors, students must earn a minimum GPA of 3.70 in the relevant courses, while for highest honors, the GPA must be 3.90 or higher. Writing a thesis is not a requirement for receiving honors or highest honors.

Requirements and Planners

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Course Requirements Expand and Collapse

To graduate with a major in CRES, a student is required to complete 10 courses with the approval of the department.

Lower-Division Core Expand and Collapse

One lower-division foundation course:

CRES 10

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies: An Introduction

5

Upper-Division Core Expand and Collapse

One upper-division core course is required for the major:

CRES 100

Comparative Theories of Race and Ethnicity

5

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement Expand and Collapse

Students of every major must satisfy that major’s upper-division disciplinary communication (DC) requirement. The DC requirement in CRES is satisfied by completing CRES 101, Research Methods and Writing in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. Students must complete their DC requirement prior to the Senior Seminar.

CRES 101

Research Methods and Writing in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

5

Electives Expand and Collapse

Students must complete at least six electives offered in critical race and ethnic studies (with the CRES designation) or from the lists below. Each course much be 5 credits. At least five must be upper-division, and up to one lower-division course is allowed. For current offerings, please visit the CRES course page.

• At least two electives must be from the list of designated courses focusing on phenomena outside of the U.S. or on transnational or hemispheric subjects.
• At least one elective must be from the list of designated courses focusing on social movements.
• At least two academic divisions must be represented in the elective coursework.

Students are encouraged to supplement their upper-division coursework with language study, internships, and individual or group independent studies. Students may petition to have up to 10 credits of such activities substituted for upper-division elective requirements, so long as these activities serve, or do not interfere with, the breadth requirements.

Division of Arts

ARTG 139 /CRES 139	Queer and Trans Art and Games	5
ARTG 142 /CRES 142	Black Aesthetics: Interventions in Digital Media	5
FILM 165B	Race on Screen	5
FILM 165D	Asian Americans and Media	5
FILM 165E	Chicana/o Cinema, Video	5
HAVC 140A	America in Art	5
HAVC 140C	Race and American Visual Arts	5
HAVC 141F	The Camera and the Body	5
HAVC 141K	Activist Art Since 1960: Art, Technology, Activism	5
HAVC 190J	Visual Cultures of the Vietnam-American War	5
MUSC 81M	Chicano/Latino Music in the United States	5
THEA 151A	Studies in Performance: African American Theater Arts Troupe	5

Division of Humanities

CRES 14	Center for Racial Justice Service Learning	5
CRES 15	Resource Centers Service Learning Course	5
CRES 60E	Blackness and Indigeneity in Europe	5
CRES 68	Approaches to Black Studies	5
CRES 70B	Black Radical University?	5
CRES 111	The Sounds of Struggle	5
CRES 113	Music and Performance	5
CRES 114	Race and Disability in American Drama	5
CRES 118	Abolitionist Futures	5
CRES 121 /EDUC 121	The Struggle for K-12 Ethnic Studies	5
CRES 131	Black Freedom Movements	5
CRES 132	Black Speculations	5
CRES 150	Race, Gender and Algorithms	5
CRES 181	The Lynch Doctrine: From Rough Justice to Stand Your Ground	5
CRES 185A	Race, Gender, and Science	5
CRES 188B	Topics in Black Studies	5
CRES 188S	Topics in Settler Colonial Critique	5
CRES 188T	Topics in Race, Science and Technology	5
CRES 188X	Topics in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies	5
FMST 117	Post Zora Interventions: Art, Activism and Anthropology	5
FMST 124	Technology, Science, and Race Across the Americas	5
FMST 125	Race, Sex, and Technology	5
FMST 136 /CRES 136/ENVS 136	Organizing for Water Justice in California	5
FMST 145	Racial and Gender Formations in the U.S	5
HIS 104C	Celluloid Natives: American Indian History on Film	5
HIS 104D	Museums and the Representation of Native American History, Memory, and Culture	5
HIS 106B	Asian and Asian American History, 1941-Present	5
HIS 109A	Race, Gender, and Power in the Antebellum South	5
HIS 110H	Greater Reconstruction: Race, Empire, and Citizenship in the Post-Civil War United States	5
HIS 120	W.E.B. Du Bois	5
HIS 121B	African American History: 1877 to the Present	5
HIS 122A	Jazz and United States Cultural History, 1900-1945	5
HIS 122B	Jazz and United States Cultural History, 1945 to the Present	5
HIS 123	Immigrants and Immigration in U.S. History	5
HIS 128	Chicana/Chicano History	5
HIS 151A	Medicine and the Body in the Colonial World	5
LING 135 /CRES 135	Language and Racialization	5
LIT 80H	The Politics of Fashion	5
LIT 121L	Green Ache: Ecopoetics, Race, and Material	5
LIT 121N	RAGE: Race and Performance	5
LIT 133H	Haunted by the Forgotten War: Literature and Film of the Korean War	5
LIT 134A	Caribbean Literature	5
LIT 135F	Empire and After in the Anglophone Novel	5
LIT 135G	Postcolonial Writing	5
LIT 145A	Colonial American Literatures	5
LIT 149E	Modern Fiction and Poetry	5
LIT 154C	Hip Hop Hi Art	5
LIT 160E	Theorizing Race and Comics	5
LIT 160K	Race, Labor, and Migration	5
LIT 161A	African American Literature	5
LIT 161B	African American Women Writers	5
LIT 162A	Asian American Literature	5
LIT 163A	American Indian Literature	5
LIT 165B	Latino Fictions of the Americas	5
LIT 169A	White Flow(n): Race, Gender, and Material	5
LIT 189F	Literaturas Latinas en los Estados Unidos: en inglés, español y Spanglish	5
LIT 189V	Andean Indigenismo	5

Division of Social Sciences

ANTH 110Q /CRES 110Q/FMST 110Q	Queer Sexuality in Black Popular Culture	5
ANTH 130O	Native Feminisms, Gender, and Settler Colonialism	5
ANTH 140 /CRES 140	The Body in Rain: Environmental and Medical Intersections	5
ANTH 158	Feminist Ethnographies	5
ANTH 187	Cultural Heritage in Colonial Contexts	5
ANTH 196J	Imagining America	5
CMMU 163	Health Care Inequalities	5
ECON 128 /LGST 128	Poverty and Public Policy	5
EDUC 125	Multicultural Children's Literature for Elementary Classrooms	5
EDUC 128	Immigrants and Education	5
EDUC 135	Gender and Education	5
EDUC 140	Language, Diversity, and Learning	5
EDUC 141	Bilingualism and Schooling	5
EDUC 160	Issues in Educational Reform	5
EDUC 164	Urban Education	5
EDUC 173	Seminar in Critical Pedagogy	5
EDUC 174	Ethnographic Research in Schools and Communities	5
EDUC 177	Teaching Linguistically Diverse Students	5
EDUC 181	Race, Class, and Culture in Education	5
LALS 112	Immigration and Assimilation	5
LALS 128 /OAKS 128	Latino Media in the U.S	5
LALS 131	Latino Literatures: Assimilation and Assimilability	5
LALS 143	Race and Ethnicity	5
LALS 144	Mexicana/Chicana Histories	5
LGST 111B /POLI 111B	Civil Liberties	5
PSYC 153	The Psychology of Poverty and Social Class	5
PSYC 159H	Community-Based Interventions	5
PSYC 159I	Psychology of Immigration	5
SOCY 120	Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Sexuality and Cultural Politics	5
SOCY 127P	Sociology of Drugs, Botanicals and Pharmaceuticals	5
SOCY 128C /LGST 128C	Social History of Democracy, Anarchism, and Indigenism	5
SOCY 128I /LGST 128I	Race and Law	5
SOCY 139T	Community-Engaged Research Practicum	5
SOCY 143	Black Botanical Medicine in the Americas	5
SOCY 148	Educational Inequality	5
SOCY 152	Body and Society	5
SOCY 156	U.S. Latinx Identities: Centers and Margins	5
SOCY 170P	The Political Economy of Race	5
SOCY 172	Sociology of Social Movements	5
SOCY 173X	Water and Sanitation Justice	5

The Colleges

JRLC 135	Apprenticeship in Community Engaged Research	5
JRLC 136	Methodologies of Critical Praxis	5

Transnational Requirement

Students must select at least two electives focusing on phenomena outside of the U.S. or on transnational or hemispheric subjects.

Division of the Arts

HAVC 124B	History of Photography in Southeast Asia	5
HAVC 170	Art of the Body in Oceania	5
HAVC 179	Topics in Oceanic Visual Culture	5
THEA 167	Africanist Aesthetics: Live Dialogues in the Americas and Africa	5

Division of the Humanities

CRES 45	Pilipinx Historical Dialogue	5
CRES 70U	(Un)docu Studies	5
CRES 112	AsianAm Enviro Justice	5
CRES 113	Music and Performance	5
CRES 116	Race and the Pacific: U.S. and Japanese Empires in Comparative Perspective	5
CRES 188A	Topics in Transnational Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies	5
FMST 112 /POLI 112	Women and the Law	5
FMST 115	Gender, Sexuality, and Transnational Migration Across the Americas	5
HISC 117 /CRES 117	Making the Refugee Century: Non-Citizens and Modernity	5
HIS 106A	Vietnam War Memories	5
HIS 131	Women in Colonial Latin America	5
HIS 137A	Africa to 1800	5
HIS 137B	Africa from 1800 to the Present	5
HIS 140D	Recent Chinese History	5
HIS 150E	History and Memory in the Okinawan Islands	5
HIS 154	Post-Colonial North Africa	5
HIS 156	Interrogating Politics in the Post-Colonial Middle East	5
HIS 158C /ANTH 179	Slavery in the Atlantic World: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives	5
HIS 166	Northern Ireland: Communities in Conflict	5
HIS 170C	Mediterranean France: The History and Politics of Immigration	5
HIS 181B	Africa and Britain in an Imperial World	5
HIS 184B	Racism and Antiracism in Europe: From 1870 to the Present	5
HIS 190A	Slavery and Race in Latin America	5
HIS 194T	Worlds of Labor in Asia	5
HIS 194U	The Cold War and East Asia	5
LIT 131C	Worldings	5
LIT 133G	The Nuclear Pacific	5
LIT 135A	Topics in African Literature	5
LIT 138A	Culture and Nation	5
LIT 155E	Cinema and Social Change in Latin America	5
LIT 160I	Race, Militarism, and Empire in Asia and the Pacific	5
LIT 160J	Exile, Diaspora, Migration	5
LIT 162B	Literature of the Asian Diaspora	5
LIT 164G	Literature and the Holocaust	5
LIT 165A	Chicanx/Mexican American Literature	5
LIT 165C	Mesoamerican Indigenous/Indigenista Literature	5
LIT 189P	Las mujeres en la literatura latinoamericana	5
LIT 189S	La cultura popular en la narrativa latinoamericana	5
LIT 190O	Studies in Slavery, Race, and Nation in the Americas	5

Division of the Social Sciences

ANTH 110O /HIS 181A	Postcolonial Britain and France	5
ANTH 129	Beyond Borders: Other Globalizations and Histories of Interconnection	5
ANTH 130A	Anthropology of Africa.	5
ANTH 130C	Politics and Culture in China	5
ANTH 130F /CRES 130	Blackness In Motion: Anthology of the African Diasporas	5
ANTH 130L	Ethnographies of Latin America	5
ANTH 130T	Religion and Politics in the Muslim World	5
ANTH 159	Race and Anthropology	5
CMMU 145	Global Capitalism: a History of the Present	5
LALS 100	Concepts and Theories in Latin American and Latina/o Studies	5
LALS 115	Mexico-United States Migration	5
LALS 150	Afro-Latinos/as: Social, Cultural, and Political Dimensions	5
LALS 152	Consumer Cultures Between the Americas	5
LALS 170	Indigenous Struggles in the Americas	5
LALS 171	Brazil in Black and White	5
LALS 172	Visualizing Human Rights	5
LALS 175	Migration, Gender, and Health	5
LALS 178	Gender, Transnationalism, and Globalization	5
LALS 180	Borders: Real and Imagined	5
LALS 194H	Central America and the United States	5
POLI 187	Decolonial Global Health: A View from the Middle East and Africa	5
SOCY 128 /LGST 126	Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies	5
SOCY 128M /LGST 128M	International Law and Global Justice	5
SOCY 143	Black Botanical Medicine in the Americas	5

Social Movements Requirement

Students must select at least one course which focuses on social movements.

Division of Arts

HAVC 141K

Activist Art Since 1960: Art, Technology, Activism

5

Division of Humanities

CRES 70B	Black Radical University?	5
CRES 131	Black Freedom Movements	5
CRES 132	Black Speculations	5
FMST 20	Feminism and Social Justice	5
HIS 121B	African American History: 1877 to the Present	5
HIS 154	Post-Colonial North Africa	5
HIS 156	Interrogating Politics in the Post-Colonial Middle East	5
HIS 184B	Racism and Antiracism in Europe: From 1870 to the Present	5

Division of Social Sciences

ANTH 130F /CRES 130	Blackness In Motion: Anthology of the African Diasporas	5
LALS 170	Indigenous Struggles in the Americas	5
LALS 178	Gender, Transnationalism, and Globalization	5
SOCY 172	Sociology of Social Movements	5

Comprehensive Requirement Expand and Collapse

The comprehensive requirement is fulfilled by completing a senior seminar from the CRES 190 series, or one of the other senior seminars listed below. CRES 190 series courses in the current General Catalog are also listed below; any CRES 190 series course that is listed in a subsequent General Catalog will also satisfy the comprehensive requirement.

Prerequisites for the CRES 190 series include CRES 10 and CRES 100 and satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing and Composition requirements. Senior seminars outside of CRES may have additional enrollment restrictions or prerequisites.

CRES 190A /FMST 194S	Critical Race Feminisms	5
CRES 190B	Critical Migration Studies	5
CRES 190C	The Black Transnational	5
CRES 190D	Black Geographies and the Imperative of Abolition	5
CRES 190P	Trans of Color Performance and Media	5
CRES 190S	From Slavery to Precarity: Race, Logistics and Globalization	5
CRES 190T	The War on Terror: Imperialism Past and Present	5
CRES 190X	Racial Capitalism	5
FMST 194K /CRES 190K	Black Diaspora	5
FMST 194L /CRES 190L	Comparative Settler Colonial Studies	5
FMST 194M /CRES 190M	Empire and Sexuality	5
FMST 194O /CRES 190O	The Politics of Gender and Human Rights	5
FMST 194Q /CRES 190Q	Queer Diasporas	5
FMST 194R /CRES 190R	HIstories of the Carceral State	5
FMST 194U /CRES 190U	Touring War and Empire	5
FMST 194V /CRES 190V	Marxism and Feminism	5
ANTH 196G /CRES 190G	Queer Worlds: Sexuality, Intimacy and Power in Contemporary Ethnography	5

Planners Expand and Collapse

The tables below are for informational purposes and do not reflect all university, general education, and credit requirements. See Undergraduate Graduation Requirements for more information.

Four-Year Sample Academic Plan For CRES Major (Frosh)

Students must have satisfied the English language and writing requirement (ELWR) and have completed the C1 requirement in order to enroll in CRES 10. Students who place into C2 in their first fall quarter may enroll in CRES 10 in their first fall quarter.

	Fall	Winter	Spring	Summer
Entering				College 1A
				Summer Edge (optional)
1st (frosh)	College 1	WRIT 1/WRIT 1E (if needed)
2nd (soph)	CRES 10	CRES 100	CRES 101
	WRIT 2*		CRES elective
3rd (junior)	CRES elective	CRES elective	CRES elective
		CRES elective
4th (senior)	CRES elective	CRES 190

Students must also complete all general education requirements except for ER, which is satisfied by CRES 10. 

*WRIT 2 should be taken in or before spring quarter of the second year.

Two-Year Sample Academic Plan for CRES Major (Transfer Students)

Transfer students should complete their general education (GE) requirements or IGETC before enrolling at UCSC, but this is not a requirement to complete the major within two years of transferring. The CRES major consists of 10 courses, allowing transfer students to complete about two CRES courses per quarter along with additional units to complete the required 180 units for graduation.

Sample Transfer-Students Academic Planner for CRES Major – Fall Admission

	Fall	Winter	Spring	Summer
Entering				KRSG 1T
				Summer Edge (optional)
1st (junior)	CRES 10	CRES 100	CRES 101
		CRES elective	CRES elective
2nd (senior)	CRES elective	CRES elective	CRES 190
	CRES elective	CRES elective