During a month of celebrations for triumphs of culture, some ASU department directors are encouraging students to experience how beneficial courses on different ethnicities or perspectives can be.
Professor Eddie F. Brown, director of American Indian Studies at ASU, said his department does not wish to be identified as an ethnic-studies department because the focus of the course materials is on tribal sovereignty and the relationship between tribal and federal governments as Arizona grows and develops.
A misunderstanding of the core issues in contemporary American Indian society may lead to a misunderstanding of the course material, Brown said.
“It really requires the faculty member to be respectful of that [cultural gap],” he said. “It’s really a challenge, to keep the course at a pace to hold the interest of both groups.”
Brown said he understands how students could be intimidated by being the class minority for the first time, but like his own college experience as the only American Indian in many of his courses, this environment can also teach students to listen carefully to those of different cultures.
At least 90 percent of students in upper-division American Indian Studies courses are of American Indian descent, but reaching out to non-Indian students to promote campus understanding is one of the department’s future initiatives, Brown said.
“There may be hesitancy to speak up in class for fear of being ostracized,” he said. “But if [non-Indian students] have the courage to speak out, you’ll find we will come around and sympathize.”
David Fong, who graduated in December with a BIS degree in business and communication, said in an e-mail he experienced some resistance to his opinions in a women’s studies course he was enrolled in last year. He said about 90 percent of his classmates were women.
But Fong said the course fulfilled his goals of being introduced to new perspectives about women in society.
“Learning about different types of people gives a better understanding and will decrease the bias or ignorance” of everyday narrow-mindedness, Fong said.
Christina Mesiti, a painting and art history senior, also stepped out of her comfort zone last semester, taking a course in Chicano film from ASU’s Transborder
Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies department.
She said the chance to interact with students of different cultural backgrounds was more informative than the coursework itself.
But the class itself, although culturally interesting, was not as intellectually stimulating or focused on film as Mesiti expected.
“It was intimidating even to speak — you feel you have no right even to speak [on issues of race of another descent],” Mesiti said. “You are afraid to disagree, because you don’t want to be offensive, but diversity is not really promoted by [this atmosphere].”
Carlos Velez-Ibanez, president and chair of the Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies department, said the main academic objective of the department is for students to educate students on all border issues.
He said he would not respond to individual allegations of student discomfort before discussing the matter with them personally.
“Any student who has a problem with the way our department is run can come talk to me directly,” he said. “I don’t hide away; I don’t have any reason to.”
The Asian Pacific American Studies department is similar to the Transborder and American Indian Studies departments, said the program’s interim director Kathy Nakagawa in an e-mail.
The academic focus of the departments is on how the contemporary issues of a particular group of people apply to the nation as a whole.
Nakagama said she has not yet had a student officially express feelings of discomfort or intimidation as a result of class demographics.
And while some students may have uncomfortable experiences with the sensitive material and class dynamics, the aim to create a cultural awareness among students of different heritage is a shared ambition for hers and other departments at ASU.
“We are becoming an increasingly global and diverse society, and learning about other cultures is an important part of becoming a knowledgeable, skilled citizen for the future,” she said.
Reach the reporter at trabens@asu.edu.
