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Diversity Studies Certificate Program

Diversity Studies Certificate Program

The Diversity Studies certificate is an interdisciplinary and online program of study that explores social difference and inequality related to gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, aging, religion, and disability. How we experience and view the world around us, the opportunities presented to us, and even the people that we surround ourselves with are constrained by invisible and unconscious systems of power. These systems organize our schools, workplaces, healthcare systems, criminal justice system, and media, and reproduce inequality rooted in ignoring or downplaying diversity. The Diversity Studies certificate will encourage students to take an intersectional approach to expose, critique, and confront historical and contemporary sources of social inequality. This certificate will enable students to complement their existing course portfolio by providing an opportunity to deepen their knowledge around issues of difference through a broad range of interdisciplinary coursework. An interdisciplinary approach will make it easier for students to see connections across disciplines and allow them to cluster their coursework in a meaningful and related way. The Diversity Studies certificate is designed to encourage reflection on the ethical challenges that arise when we become aware of how privilege, power, and difference are embedded in our world and daily lives. The aim is to move the discourse away from mere tolerance, celebration or appreciation to a deeper understanding and critique of discrimination, intolerance, and inequality in the historical and contemporary global society.

The certificate will provide students with skills vital to careers in fields such as human resources, non-profit agencies, social welfare, education, and health and medicine. We have designed the certificate around an intersectional perspective that invites students to see the ways that race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, etc. operate together in overlapping and conflicting ways to affect all aspects of human experience.

Professor in Charge

Laura Spielvogel
Teaching Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
318 Willard Building
University Park, PA 16802
lts5125@psu.edu

Advisor

Julianna Chaszar
127A Burrowes Building
University Park , PA 16802
Email: jxc50@psu.edu
Office Phone: (814) 863-8559
Schedule an appointment: starfish.psu.edu

12 CREDITS REQUIRED FOR THE CERTIFICATE

Prescribed Online Courses (3 Credits)

The one PRESCRIBED course for the certificate, introduces students to this intersectional perspective and situates discussions of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and disability within institutional spaces that include: education, the family, work, religion, the criminal justice system, and the media. After completing this course, students are then required to take 3 credits of ADDITIONAL COURSES that include AFAM 100, WMNST 100, WMNST 106, and ENGL 245/WMNST 245.

Specific Additional Online Courses (3 Credits)

  • AFAM 100: Living While Black: Themes in African American Thought and Experience
  • WMNST 100: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
  • WMNST 106: Representing Women and Gender in Literature, Art and Popular Cultures
  • WMNST/ENGL 245: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies

Additional Online Courses (6 Credits)

How to Declare a Diversity Studies Certificate

Undergraduate degree-seeking students must self-apply for Certificate Enrollment through Update Academics in your Student Services Center, within LionPATH. Be sure to add the Liberal Arts Diversity Studies Certificate (Not the University College Diversity Studies Certificate through Shenango).

In the semester you intend to graduate, please be sure Diversity Studies is visible on your LionPath and email Laurie Spielvogel (lts5125@psu.edu) that you are ready to receive your Diversity Studies Certificate.

Undergraduate non-degree students notify the academic unit responsible for the certificate program. All new non-degree students must submit a nondegree enrollment form and email it to Laura Spielvogel, the Director of the Diversity Studies Certificate (lts5125@psu.edu). Once entered in the Student Information System, the academic unit enrolls the students in the certificate program.

If you have an questions about the process, please email Laura Spielvogel (lts5125@psu.edu).

12 CREDITS REQUIRED FOR THE CERTIFICATE

PRESCRIBED ONLINE COURSES (3 credits)

ADDITIONAL ONLINE COURSES

Students select 3 credits from:

  • AFAM 100: Living While Black: Themes in African American Thought and Experience
  • WMNST 100: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
  • WMNST 106: Representing Women and Gender in Literature, Art and Popular Cultures
  • WMNST 120: Sex, Gender, and the Body
  • WMNST/ENGL 245: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies

Students select 6 credits from:

  • AFAM 100: Living While Black: Themes in African American Thought and Experience
  • AFAM/SOC 409: Racial and Ethnic Inequality in America
  • AFR 110: Introduction to Contemporary Africa
  • AMST 140: Religion in American Life and Thought
  • ANTH 1: Understanding Humans
  • ANTH 45: Cultural Diversity: A Global Perspective
  • ANTH 146: Indigenous North America
  • ASIA 100: What is Asia
  • BBH 302: Diversity and Health
  • BBH 315: Gender and Biobehavioral Health
  • CAS 271N: Intercultural Communication
  • CAS 426W: Communication Ethics
  • CAS 475: Studies in Public Address
  • CAS 455: Gender Roles in Communication
  • CMLIT 10: World Literatures
  • CMLIT 153: International Cultures; Film and Literature
  • COMM 205: Gender, Diversity and the Media
  • CRIM/SOC 201: Presumed Innocent? Social Science of Wrongful Conviction
  • CSD 269: Deaf Culture
  • FR 139: France and the French-Speaking World
  • HDFS 254N: Reading Our Lives: Understanding Diversity and Human Development through Memoirs
  • HDFS 249N: Adult Development and Aging
  • HDFS 250: Sexual Identity over the Life Span
  • HIST 447: Recent American History
  • HIST 479: History of Imperialism and Nationalism in Africa
  • JST 10: Jewish Civilization
  • LER/WMNST 136: Race, Gender, and Employment
  • LER 458Y/HIST458Y: History of Work in America
  • LER/RHS 410: Employment Strategies for People with Disabilities
  • OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context
  • OLEAD 411: Women and Leadership
  • PLSC 210: Rights in America
  • PSYCH 422: Human Sexuality 
  • RHS 100: Introduction to Disability Culture
  • RHS 410: Employment Strategies for People with Disabilities
  • RLST 1: Introduction to World Religions
  • RPTM 120: Leisure and Human Behavior
  • SOC 35: Sociology of Aging
  • SOC 119 (4 credits): Race and Ethnic Relations
  • SOC 456: Gender, Occupations, and Professions
  • SPLED 461: Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorders: Issues and Concerns
  • WMNST 100: Introduction to Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality, Studies
  • WMNST 106: Representing Women and Gender in Literature, Art and Popular Cultures
  • WMNST 120: Sex, Gender, and the Body
  • WMNST/ENGL 245: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies