Designed to introduce students to critical approaches to the study of ethnic literatures and cultures from the long twentieth century. In its different iterations, the course takes a comparative approach, surveying a wide range of literary genres by authors from Asian American, Black, Chicanx, Latinx, multiracial, Native American and other diverse communities. Students build an analytical foundation for examining literary production and learn to link form, artistry, and concept to histories and politics of colonialism, identity, migration, nationhood, race, and segregation.

For majors who declared in Fall 2023 or later, this course fulfills one of the two lower-division requirements for the English major.