After the death of George Floyd last summer and the increase in protests against anti-Black violence, institutions began announcing plans to address racial inequity and systemic racism on campus. As part of this effort, many colleges and universities across the country have focused on finding ways to incorporate principles of the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racism into the curriculum.
For example, at Princeton University, faculty members in the school’s Humanities Council applied for funding to develop courses related to racism and racial inequity.
Those chosen classes include “Migration Reporting;” “A Global History of Monsters;” “Arts in the Invisible City: Race, Policy, Performance;” “Reporting on Policing, Race and Inequality;” “Service and Social Justice in the Western Humanities Sequence;” and “What to Read and Believe in the Age of COVID.”
Dr. Kate Stanton, director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning and associate dean of the college at Princeton, says she is pleased with “the real variety and depth of these course offerings,” some of which were offered in fall 2020. Others are launching for the Spring semester.
Faculty at Carthage College are also working to incorporate the racial history of the United States into the curriculum for all first-year students.
Discussions may vary across departments. Economics courses might focus on the consequences of redlining, while sociology courses might seek to understand the construction of race, according to Dr. John Swallow, Carthage’s president.
To support these efforts, Carthage has received $500,000 in donations.
