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.
Founding Director, CRES, and Professor of Sociology
For more information about admission to this and other acclaimed undergraduate programs at St. John’s University, please visit Undergraduate Admission.
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.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
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.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
HIS 3375 | Asian American History | 3 |
HIS 3711 | African American History to 1900 | 3 |
HIS 3712 | African American History since 1900 | 3 |
| Course | Title | 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 |
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
PHI 3750 | The Philosophy of Race | 3 |
THE 3245 | Liberation Theology | 3 |
THE 3255 | Race and Religion in the US | 3 |
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
CRES3410 | Racial Capitalism and Political Economy | 3 |
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
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 |
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
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 Rhetoric | 3 |
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
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 |
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
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.
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.
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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The minor in Africana Studies requires 15 credits including HIS 3400 African Civilizations and the African Diaspora and four of the following courses, representing at least three different disciplines.
The combined Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Science (M.S.) program in Asian Studies and Accounting offers highly-motivated students the opportunity to complete their undergraduate and graduate degrees in five years of full-time study.
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The combined Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) / Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Asian studies and East Asian studies offers highly-motivated students the opportunity to complete their undergraduate and graduate degrees in five years of full-time study.
The Institute for Asian Studies was established in 1959. Our goal is to foster, facilitate, and enhance a global, multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual education at St John's University.
As an Asian Studies major, you will engage in comprehensive and critical study of the cultural and linguistic development of the Asian world, both as a whole and as individual societies.
The Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Chinese Studies at St. John’s will provide you with a solid foundation in the language, history, and culture of China.
Salve! The Classics and Ancient Studies minors offer students the tools to understand and appreciate the ancient world. These minors study the culture, language, politics, philosophy, and religion of antiquity.
Earn an advanced certificate in East Asian Cultural Studies at St. John's University in New York City!
The Master of Arts (M.A.) program in East Asian Studies at St. John’s offers you comprehensive and critical study of the historical, social, economic, political, and cultural developments of the Asian world.
This minor will prepare students for the demands of a highly competitive international marketplace by building their global competencies and appreciation of different French-speaking cultures across five continents. Several courses that apply to this minor are offered in English.
The following minors are open to all St. John’s undergraduates but are especially beneficial to students majoring in: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Studies, Legal Studies, Government and Politics, Business Administration, English, History, Education, and Philosophy.
The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) offers an interdisciplinary certificate for students who want to learn about the cultures and societies of our neighbors to the south, as well as for those who are considering a career with involvement in the Latin American and Caribbean area.
This advanced certificate program offers students who have already earned a Master of Arts in Theology or a related field opportunities for extended, specialized graduate study.
The following minors are open to all St. John’s undergraduates but are especially beneficial to students majoring in: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Studies, Legal Studies, Government and Politics, Business Administration, English, History, Education, and Philosophy.
Theology is about learning how to explore and question the many beliefs people hold as self-evident. What does it mean to be human? How shall we live? What does it mean to believe in God (or not)? Why are there so many religions?
For highly-motivated students, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers a combined Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Theology. The program allows you to complete your undergraduate and graduate degrees in five years of full-time study, with internships available at the graduate level.
St. John's Master of Arts (M.A.) program in Theology combines the academic rigor of a world-class university with lively concern for informed and effective pastoral ministry in the twenty-first century Church.
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