Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Established two years ago, the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity is only just beginning to gain its sea legs in a time when social tolerance is more critical than ever. Perhaps that accounts for the sense of urgency one feels from the center’s interim director, Asma Barlas. Although the center already offers a few courses, has sponsored a discussion series on Islam, cohosted a series of lectures and concerts on music from the African diaspora, and is now cosponsoring a lecture and discussion series called "Race and Its Meanings" --- all of which have been well received --- Barlas realizes that the center is still far from achieving its initial objectives.

"One of the challenges facing us right now," says Barlas, who is also chair of the Department of Politics, "is to evolve courses that cut across disciplines and schools and bring together students from different areas to investigate these issues. We have to persuade departments that historically have not included underrepresented and marginalized groups in their curriculum to try and do so. But that is invariably a very difficult process."

The concept for the center came from the College’s desire for a formalized, systematic way of addressing the complicated issues of racial and cultural identity. Thus far, College support for the center has been impressive, including a $1 million endowment. According to Barlas, the fact that Ithaca College has a generally racially and culturally homogeneous population makes the need for an ongoing discussion of race especially important.

"Some people have argued that there is no interest on this campus in racial issues," says Barlas. "Well, if we don’t have a public discourse, how can we create an interest? The two are linked. Students don’t generally come into college demanding to have an in-depth dialogue on race. It’s our responsibility to provide the resources, the motivation, and the opportunities for them to begin to explore this issue."

The center’s most immediate concern is finding a permanent director and hiring an additional faculty member. Once those positions are filled, the center hopes to eventually be able to offer minors in Latino/Hispanic studies, African New World studies, and Asian American studies. A minor in Native American studies is already being developed by assistant professor of anthropology Jack Rossen.

At the moment, the center is encouraging professors from different schools and disciplines to develop courses that can be taught as part of its curriculum and that can be cross-listed as courses in other schools. It is not enough, Barlas contends, to teach about culture and race in a utilitarian way --- for instance, teaching business students about Japanese American culture so as not to offend clients. "That’s all well and good," she says, "but we are trying to get beyond that. . . . We want to encourage students to develop a more complicated understanding of how identities are formed, how they intercept, and to question the ways we define ourselves."