UAFS announces creation of minor in diversity studies
FORT SMITH — Students at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith can partake in a new program professors say will provide them with important skills.
The university announced a new minor in diversity studies in its College of Arts and Sciences on Monday.
Daniel Maher, professor of anthropology and sociology at the university and coordinator for the minor, said the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved it Oct. 29. The university’s Curriculum Committee approved it in June, and the University of Arkansas System trustees signed off on it in September.
Maher said he’s promoting the program, which he described as interdisciplinary, as a complement to bachelor’s degrees. He believes having the skills this program is designed to impart will help students set themselves apart for employers. He said employers have become more aware of the need for the abilities associated with diversity, equity and inclusion in recent years.
Svetla Dimitrova, assistant professor of sociology and coordinator for the university’s Gender and Intersectional Feminism Committee, similarly said the minor’s multidisciplinary approach is expected to foster innovative thinking for students.
“But the reality’s that we live in a diverse environment,” Dimitrova said. “Our country’s diverse, our workplaces are diverse, so having an understanding about what diversity is in terms of how it presents in people’s lives and in the ideas that they hold and how you can use those productively in creating positive change, that’ll be extremely beneficial, I think,
for our students.”
Dimitrova said while the university is focused on workforce development, it’s also committed to creating informed citizens.
John Blue, the university’s executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said Wednesday he believes the program has the ability to help positively affect the institution’s enrollment numbers.
“This minor reinforces UAFS’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” Blue said. “In addition, it tells prospective students and their families that UAFS is actively working on making sure that our campus community is one that is welcoming, open and accessible to everyone.”
Students looking to minor in diversity studies will have to take a cultural anthropology class, as well as a new class — introduction to diversity studies, according to Maher.
“Concepts and theories from anthropology, comparative literature, history, psychology and sociology will be used to develop and understand the social diversity of contemporary United States,” the syllabus states. “Elements of diversity covered in the course include race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, age, class, language, legal status, xenophobia, immigration, nationalism and intersectionality.”
Students may choose four upper-level elective courses from a selection of about 30 to build their diversity studies minor from there, Maher said. This includes classes in the fields of anthropology, criminal justice, English, foreign language, history, media communication, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, social work and Spanish.
Maher said students can mix and match the types of classes they take or take classes sharing a specific theme to have an emphasis with their minor.
“They can take four classes that all have to do with global studies, or have to do with race and ethnicity, or have to do with sex and gender,” Maher said.
In addition, out of the four courses students are required to take for the diversity studies minor, they can only take two within any one field, such as history, according to Maher. This means the structure of the minor itself requires a diversity of disciplines.
Maher said the diversity studies minor came out of a conversation over the past four years concerning how the College of Arts and Sciences could repackage the content of the anthropology and sociology minors in a format more accessible and usable for students.
The conversation ultimately led to the deletion of the anthropology minor and the modification of the sociology minor as well, among other changes, Maher said. The latter included the addition of a sex and gender class, as well as many other courses getting new titles.
“In itself, it has a bit of a diversity emphasis now too, but it requires research methods and stats and that sort of thing, so it’s much more of a straight sociology minor as opposed to a diversity studies minor,” Maher said.
Eighteen students were enrolled in this spring’s introduction to diversity studies class as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Maher. The class can also be applied toward the university’s social science requirement, the news release states.