The Race and Ethnicity Concentration in the English department was introduced at Connecticut College in 2010 by former English professors Simon Hay and Courtney Baker. At the time the concentration was implemented, it was impossible to complete because the classes required were not offered at a high enough frequency, or at all: The required courses relied heavily on those offered by the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCRSE), while those from the English department were never offered due to miscommunication. As a result, in the first seven years since the concentration was offered, not a single student was able to concentrate on race and ethnicity through the English department.
I interviewed Jeff Strabone, an associate professor of English who offers classes on African Novels and Race, Nation and Empires, as well as Hubert Cook, an assistant professor of English who specializes in, among other things, African American and Caribbean Literature and Culture and Affect Studies. I also spoke with Julie Rivkin, Chair of the English department, as well as a third professor specializing in American and Contemporary Literature. Professor Strabone and Professor Cook were both part of the subcommittee tasked with revising the concentration and renaming it Race, Power, and Difference. Although Professor Rivkin was not a part of this subcommittee, she was a part of approving the revisions alongside the rest of the English department. The concentration was recently approved as of Wednesday, Nov. 6.
When Professor Strabone arrived at Conn in 2012, not one student had enrolled in the concentration. In the fall of 2012, the concentration was revised by Courtney Baker and Professor Strabone in an attempt to make it easier to complete. In the seven years since this revision process, only one student has completed the concentration. Professor Strabone pointed to the quick turnover of faculty members in the English department as an explanation for the large gap in time between the founding of the concentration and the ongoing revision to make it accessible to students.
I asked the professors if students would have been more interested in the concentration if it would have been revised sooner. There were varying answers. It was not confirmed that there was a lack of interest among professors and students, but it is inferred, due to the inactivity surrounding the concentration. Professor Rivkin hopes that the faculty engagement and excitement surrounding the revised concentration will bolster student engagement as well, and attract students from outside departments. “We want students to know the English department offers a rich set of courses that take on critical race theory [and] that this is a place to study issues of race, power, and difference,” explains Rivkin.
Professor Strabone agrees: “The English Department’s Race, Power, Difference Concentrations coalesces faculty research interests in race, gender, queer theory, age studies, disability studies, empire, and other areas of power and difference for use on literary texts. For the concentration, students take courses that foreground race in literature all the while considering how forms of difference and power cut across or reinforce ideas of race. Professor Cook emphasized the importance of the skills embedded in the concentration and concepts discussed in the required classes, which will give students the ability to analyze and address the interactions concerning race and gender in their lives. He explains, “My hope for the concentration is that it distills methodologies that allow students to think about how race, power, and difference intersect, collide, derail and reinforce one another and to think about how that practice might help students think through things that happen in their daily lives.”
Professor Rivkin described the evolution of the English department at Conn. Many institutions are moving away from English literature to explore literature in all contexts across the globe. This global study has inspired another concentration called World Literature, which was created by Assistant English Professor Marie Ostby who specializes in World Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Middle Eastern Studies, and Gender Studies. On Thursday, Nov. 14, an English department celebration was held in Coffee Grounds to unveil the two newly created and revised concentrations to students. Posters will be made to advertise the concentrations and inspire students to learn about these very important issues and concepts through their study of English. •
