Comparative American Studies became the College’s newest academic program in a unanimous faculty vote at Tuesday’s College Faulty meeting. The interdisciplinary program addresses race, class, gender and sexuality in American society and culture, approaching identity formation in the U.S. by examining the trajectories of Latino Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people.
Students, clad in black-markered “CAS Now!” T-shirts, offeredfaculty members stickers and balloons as they passed into the meeting. This huddle of cheering, sign-clutching students was familiar to faculty members who had attended recent meetings addressing other issues of student concern such as the MRC. On those occasions, like Tuesday, students felt a need to be seen.
“We came today to show that there are a lot of people who support CAS and put faces behind the words,” senior Tarika Powell said.
CAS will require at least another year before students are able to major in the program. EPPC ranked the program’s two new faculty requests as ‘top priority,’ but the tenure track positions in Latino Studies and LGBT Theory still require the approval of Faculty Council before the hiring process can begin.
“We won’t be in a position to offer required CAS courses this fall, [because] we would prefer to have the new professors teach the intro class and the research method course….We don’t have all the pieces to be up and running,” Professor of Sociology and CAS committee member Bill Norris said.
Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Bob Geitz opened conversation on the long-anticipated program proposal. “The program will provide the intellectual framework for issues that create much noise on campus, not much thought,” Geitz said.
Already existing classes such as “Asian American History,” “The Political Economy of Gender in Advanced Capitalism,” “Advanced Topics in Race and Ethnic Relations” and “Contemporary African American Literature” come together under CAS’s rubric. According to the program proposal: “[CAS’s] unifying focus is the study of the American experience or more accurately the American experiences from the perspective of groups that have been systematically excluded from the enters of political, economic and cultural power over the past four centuries.”
A CAS major will consist of thirty credits including a required introductory level course, Theories and Methods of Comparative Analysis and one seminar. CAS Majors will be required to study at least two groups in depth, taking at least six credit hours at the 200 or 300 level for each of the chosen groups.
From the onset, faculty discussion focused on the program’s place in academia, one professor opening conversation with a question of the program’s origins.
“CAS is the kind of progression of the American Studies programs. Now at Amherst they have American Studies that emphasizes race, class and gender...Weslyn and Williams have moved their American Studies closer to the model we are envisioning,” CAS committee member and Professor of History Gary Kornblyth responded.
The “American” quotient of the program’s name threw some faculty members off, professors pointing out that the program’s offering’s included seminars on Latin American and Caribbean culture and voicing confusion on how courses would be deemed suitable for such a program.
“The title Comparative Identity Studies would sound more to me like the central theoretical and pedagogical theme of the program,” Professor of Politics Ronald Kahn said.
Faculty members who had worked on the program felt that the tensions and ambiguities raised in discussion cut to heart of the study’s substance.
“The notion of a nation- state, boundaries, borders, I think that is one of the central questions of such a program. It seems to me that this is what the program is about, looking at the way the conception of nation manifests itself,” Professor of Woman’s Studies and member of the CAS committee Wendy Kozol said.
One professor commented that the discussion “sounded more political then intellectual.”
In the midst of this conversation on the intent of CAS, Professor of Anthropology Jack Glazier made a motion to change its title to Identity studies before voting on it as a program. This motion met little support.
Committee members argued that the specification of “American” studies was important to the study. “ The notion that we are talking about groups finding themselves in the US,” Kornblyth reiterated, emphasizing that any name-changes should come later in the program’s planning.
Committee member and professor of History Pablo Mitchell pointed out that “Institutionally, CAS is the space where we can have these conversations [on borders and defining nation].”
Dye was the first to directly address Glazier’s motion. ‘I argue against the motion to change the program’s name. As I understand it from the faculty members who have designed this program, there is an importance to the ‘American’ in the title. There is also a question of collegiality. When department names have been changed that is a decision of the faculty in the department. I think it important that we call on the faculty who put this together to elect what to call the program,” she said, effectual ly closing the argument.
“Its your name. We can’t call you Fred, Although i feel that we could call you several things its your name,” Professor of Cinema Studies at Day said. Upon this temporal settlement, the faculty appeared ready to vote on the program, Faculty approved the program unanimously.
Now that the program has passed, and the year is winding down, the question of faculty hiring is central in both student and faculty minds.
“Our big question is if the college will bring these new professors, I can’t envision the program without the two positions, they complete the concentrations,” senior and CAS committee member Grace Han said. “One of the major things we have been working on is retention of faculty and staff of color and bringing these two professors would be a step. One of the problems is the lack if institutional support [for faulty and staff of color] this program, coming from the institution, will provide that space. It can take some stress off the MRC of being the only place to provide multiculturalism on campus,” she continued.
The eight faculty members, Dean of Arts and Sciences Clayton Koppes and President Dye that serve on Faculty Council makes all final decisions on hiring and retaining professors. The hiring process typically lasts over a year and is hampered by financial concerns. Many departments are in need of new professors but the College can only fill so many spots annually.
“Classics has asked for an additional position and EPPC gave it a favorable rating, but now its been sent to the faculty committee,” Professor of Classics Thomas Van Norwyck said. “I don’t know what the affect of the new [CAS] request will be. We don’t consider ourselves in competition with other departments. The college will approve one position- or another.
CAS comes out of years of student effort to bring Asian American Studies, Queer Studies and Latino/a Studies to Oberlin’s campus.
“We see this program as being launched before we come to the questions of [a separate] Latino Studies, APA Studies, or LGBT Studies. We are not sure if a school of our size could properly address these issues as separate majors however in the one department…we are the cutting edge of this discourse. If you look at how ethnic studies is complicating itself with an analytical approach you see we are at the forefront. “ Kornblyth said.
Ethnic Studies itself is widely held as one of the most critical outgrowths of the 1960s Asian American “Yellow” movement. In its first and most radical incarnation at San Francisco State University, Asian American studies transformed the structure of academia by demanding the right to study topics relevant to their own non-western culture and heritage.