With a diversifying workforce and customers, companies, non-profits, and almost every business in the public sector are looking for confident expertise to drive them toward their goals. With a degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado Denver, we prepare you to provide support and become the authority for your next career move.
The Ethnic Studies program can be completed completely on campus or online. You will develop and sharpen skills in:
- Analysis of and research about various cultures, communities, and institutions
- Creative and critical thinking
- Oral and written communication
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has established eight career readiness competencies that employers prefer their employees to have. These include:
- Career and Self-Development
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Equity and Inclusion
- Leadership
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
- Technology
Our Ethnic Studies program prepares you to excel in all eight of these areas with special emphasis on Equity and Inclusion, Critical Thinking, and Communication. These skills are essential for and valued in a variety of professional fields including healthcare, education, law, journalism, business, community and union organizing, social work and counseling, publishing, tech, film and television, politics and policy, non-profits and government agencies, and libraries and museums, among others.
Education as a Public Good/Necessity
As part of a Liberal Arts education, robust knowledge of the United States and the broader world requires the study of race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity in their intersections with gender, sexuality, class, religion, nation, and dis/ability. We treat these issues not as many disciplines have done, as parochial or supplementary, but as crucial to any quality education. Ethnic Studies is at the forefront of centralizing race in education. Our curriculum is designed to generate extensive, in-depth knowledge on a broad suite of topics. Our faculty are committed to helping build just, healthy multi-racial democracy. Students build critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as tools to be used in all facets of life. Of special importance to us is honoring the struggles and celebrating the achievements of our predecessors and contemporaries. Their wisdom is a wayfinder through a rapidly- changing, increasingly-complex world. We learn from the past to build futures in which all of us may truly flourish.
Empowerment
Knowledge is valuable in itself but it is best as a means to self- and community empowerment. We are dedicated to providing students with the resources to pursue their curiosities and goals within social and political contexts. Faculty aim to be supportive rather than didactic. We encourage students to design methods appropriate for the issue at hand rather than apply stale theories. Students learn to acquire and produce knowledge in various ways, such as: oral history, literary and media analysis, and community-based participatory research. Through our program, students refine critical and creative thinking, research, and styles of communication. They become remarkably adept at engaging diverse, complex issues in society and the workplace.
Community
At the heart of Ethnic Studies is community. While the university, workplace, and society may feel isolating at times, Ethnic Studies offers a rare space of belonging. We embrace everyone in our community as an important colleague and powerful visionary. We affirm that collaboration is vital for individual growth and communal health. Our lifeways provide distinctive perspectives, and our entanglements enable transformation. Through our curriculum and programming faculty, students, and community members build connections working in collaboration with student, Auraria campus, and community organizations; other CU Denver programs and offices; regional Ethnic Studies programs; and scholars, artists, activists, and teachers from both within and outside the U.S. Among our highest aspirations is to cultivate meaningful, lifelong relationships and to help students develop lifelong skills as local, national, global citizens and leaders to engage in real-world problem solving.
We welcome you here.
Inclusion is our value
CU Denver is home to one of the most diverse student populations in Colorado.
- Join your choice of 100+ student groups and organizations which support your identity and interests
- Your department and faculty are committed to the pursuit of equity and inclusion in the classroom and beyond
- Learn more at our Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Find your people
Our students forge strong ties to multiple student organizations that complement our program including:
See your future
My background in ethnic studies has tremendously prepared me for my current career journey, working at Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism (YAASPA), a nonprofit organization that endeavors to build self-efficacy of youth who desire to make change in communities, pursue social science degrees, or go into social justice careers.
—Chelsea Situmeang, Alumni, 2020