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Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Bachelor of Arts

The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies provides a comprehensive curriculum that prepares you for graduate school or for a career in advocacy, the arts, business, education, government, journalism, law, public health, and social work.

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) foregrounds the examination of class, gender, race, sexuality, and other modalities of lived identity in our interconnected world. Understanding marginalized and minoritized people in the United States, and their links to the African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin America, and Oceanic diasporas, is crucial for day-to-day workforce knowledge and experience in many fields. CRES majors engage in an interdisciplinary course of study including the arts, economics, history, politics, and sociology to graduate with a skill set focused on enacting social change on the local and global scale.

The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies provides a comprehensive curriculum that prepares you for graduate school or for a career in advocacy, the arts, business, education, government, journalism, law, public health, and social work.

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) at St. John’s University is a home for cutting-edge research and critical pedagogy on colonialism, contemporary and historical structural and social inequalities, economic globalization, empire, health-care systems, international migration, and legal and carceral structures. CRES provides you with rigorous training in methods of critical inquiry that are relevant to the most pressing cultural, political, and social challenges we face in the 21st century and their historical antecedents. 

The B.A. in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies program requires a total of 33 credits (15 credits in the CRES major sequence and 18 credits of interdisciplinary elective courses and an internship). The design of the program provides you with the flexibility to add another major or minor if desired.

Apply Plan Your Visit Institute for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Degree Type
BA
Area of Interest
Humanities
Associated Colleges or Schools
Program Location
  • Queens Campus
Required Credit Hours
120
Associated Centers or Institutes

Department Contact

Natalie P. Byfield, Ph.D.

Founding Director, CRES, and Professor of Sociology

718-990-1976

Admission

For more information about admission to this and other acclaimed undergraduate programs at St. John’s University, please visit Undergraduate Admission.

Courses

To earn the B.A. in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, you complete 120 credits including core, major sequence, and elective requirements. For more information about courses, please see the St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences section of the Undergraduate Bulletin.

CourseTitleCredits

CRES 1000

Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

3

CRES 2000

Methods in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

3

CRES 3000

Anti-Blackness Around the Globe

3

CRES 3050

Comparative Racialization: Blackness, Indigeneity, Asianness, and Latinidad

3

CRES 4995

Capstone Seminar in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

3

To fulfill the elective requirements, you must select one course each from six of the seven field categories.

History, Historicism, and Historiography 

CourseTitleCredits

HIS 3375

Asian American History

3

HIS 3711

African American History to 1900

3

HIS 3712

African American History since 1900

3

 Sociology, Social Formation, and Sociogeny

CourseTitle Credits

SOC 2230

Sociology of Latinos/as in the US

3

SOC 2350

Social Construction of Race in the Americas

3

SOC 2450

Sociology of the Black Experience

3

PSY 2230

Psychology of the African American Experience

3

ENG 3645

Comparative Migration Literature

3

ENG 3650

 Caribbean Literature 3

FRE 3820/3822

French Afro-Caribbean Literature and Culture (French/English)

3

FRE 3850/3908

Race and Immigration in France (French/English)

3

FRE 3870/3923

Urban Culture in Contemporary France (French/English)

3

Religion, Law, and Philosophy

CourseTitleCredits

PHI 3750

The Philosophy of Race3

THE 3245

Liberation Theology

3

THE 3255

Race and Religion in the US

3

Political Economy and Economics, Capital, and Accumulation

CourseTitleCredits

CRES3410

Racial Capitalism and Political Economy

3

STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (Natural, Health, Clinical Sciences)

CourseTitleCredits

ANT 2500

Critical Approaches to Reading and Writing Anthropology

3

SOC 1035

Science, Technology, and the “Human”

3

CRES 3510

BIPOC Feminist Science and Technology Studies

3

Education and Social Justice

CourseTitleCredits

ENG 3420

Race and the Environment

3

ENG 3760

Writing as Social Action

3

ENG 3845

Black Women’s Rhetoric

3

CRES 4999

Internship/Externship

3

THE 4995

Integrating Interdisciplinary Social Justice Seminar

3

FRE 3920

Human Rights in Francophone Africa

3

RCT 2100

Transnational Feminist Rhetoric3

Arts, Performance, and the Digital

CourseTitleCredits

ENG 3560

American Ethnic Literature

3

ENG 3590

Hip-Hop Aesthetics

3

ENG 3640

Vernacular Literature

3

MUS 1210

American Popular Music in the 20th/21st Centuries

3

MUS 1300

History of Jazz

3

ART 1830

Racism in Film

3

Career Outcomes

With an understanding of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, many career paths are open to you, including in education, politics, public health, research, and social work. Graduates often combine their disciplinary training with complimentary interests and skill sets. Top career areas include

  • Area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary
  • Social and community service managers
  • Social science research assistants
  • Social scientists and related workers

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of Social and Community Service Managers will grow 27.6 percent in New York through 2028. In a 2021 market study conducted by Hanover Research, there is an expected 26.8 percent upward trend for area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary, between 2019 and 2029 in the greater New York area.

St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provides the opportunity to obtain practical experience and networking connections through valuable internships and externships throughout the New York metropolitan area. Please visit University Career Services for more information.

Global Approach to Education

You benefit from St. John’s University’s focus on an international academic experience. The University offers extensive study abroad courses during the academic year, as well as during the winter and summer semesters. You can live and learn at St. John’s Rome, Italy, campus and at our Paris, France, and Limerick, Ireland, location. For more information, please visit Global Education.

Additional Information

Other facilities include high-tech classrooms, laboratories, and our 1.7 million-volume University Library. Our D’Angelo Center is a five-story, 127,000-square-foot University and student center, with classrooms, lecture halls, and a Starbucks café.

All students take advantage of St. John’s location in dynamic New York City. Our faculty and University Career Serviceshave strongties to employers and other professional and educational resources throughout the New York area.

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