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Updated 2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog | 20255

Goal Area 7: Human Diversity in the United States

GOAL AREA 7: HUMAN DIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Requirement(s)
    One course
    Two credits

Goals

To increase students' understanding of individual and group differences (e.g., race, gender, class) and their knowledge of the traditions and values of various groups in the United States. Students should be able to evaluate the United States' historical and contemporary responses to group differences.

Critical Thinking

The practice of critical thinking skills required for clear understanding of human diversity, including the ability to gather and apply factual information, analysis of logical connections between facts and assumptions, skill at recognizing and articulating the value assumptions made by ourselves and others.

Student Competencies

Students will be able to:

  • understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States, history and culture.
  • demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society.
  • analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
  • describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.
  • demonstrate communication skills necessary for living and working effectively in a society with great population diversity.

Courses that satisfy this goal area include

    ANTH 2710 Anthropology of World Religions (3 credits)
    COMM 1090 Interpersonal Communication (3 credits)
    COMM 3120 Communication in a Diverse Society (3 credits)
    COMM 3130 Family Communication (3 credits)
    COMM 3150 Gender Communication (3 credits)
    COMM 3170 Health Communication (3 credits)
    ENGL 2330 American Literature to 1865 (3 credits)
    ENGL 2337 American Literature from 1865 to Present (3 credits)
    ENVR 3710 Indigenous Environmental Knowledge: Global Perspective (3 credits)
    GEOG 1400 World Regional Geography (3 credits)
    GEOG 2200 Introduction to Human Geography (3 credits)
    GEOG 2925 People of the Environment: Geography Perspective (3 credits)
    GEOG 3410 Geography of North America (3 credits)
    GWS 1110 Introduction to Gender Studies (3 credits)
    HLTH 2800 Multicultural Health in America (2 credits)
    HST 1114 United States History I, to 1877 (3 credits)
    HST 1115 United States History II, since 1877 (3 credits)
    HST 2500 Native Americans and the United States, 1600s-Present (3 credits)
    HST 2610 Minnesota History (3 credits)
    INST 1107 Introduction to Turtle Island (3 credits)
    INST 2201 Creation to Contact (3 credits)
    INST 2202 Survivance Since Contact (3 credits)
    INST 3170 Indigenous Education (3 credits)
    INST 3307 Ojibwe History (3 credits)
    INST 3710 Indigenous Environmental Knowledge: Global Perspective (3 credits)
    INST 3888 Indigenous Women Writers (3 credits)
    JUST 3307 Victimological Theory and Practice (3 credits)
    MUS 3130 History of Rock and Roll (3 credits)
    PHIL 3340 Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Philosophy (3 credits)
    POL 1200 Introduction to American Politics (3 credits)
    POL 1400 Introduction to Comparative Politics (3 credits)
    PSY 2200 Human Sexuality (4 credits)
    PSY 2490 Disability and Ableism (4 credits)
    SOC 2230 Race and Ethnic Relations (3 credits)
    SOC 2240 Sociology of Gender - Current Topics (3 credits)
    SOC 3250 Religion and Politics: A Sociological Analysis (3 credits)
    SOC 3320 Social Class and Inequality (3 credits)
    SOC 3340 Sociology of Education (3 credits)
    SOWK 2110 Intercultural Communication (3 credits)
    SOWK 3730 Anti-Oppressive Relations on Turtle Island (3 credits)
  
OTHERS:
    All-University course numbers 1955 and 2955 are available to any department for use as study-travel courses, subject to approval, and will satisfy this goal area.

    *This course will satisfy Liberal Education at BSU, but does not qualify for inclusion in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum as currently interpreted by Minnesota State, and may not be accepted as a Liberal Education course at other Minnesota State institutions or the University of Minnesota.