Week 5: Intro to CRES with Dr. Raj Chetty (English 3680 / CRES 1000)

English 3680 / CRES 1000

This week’s course profile is a collaboration between English and the newly-established academic programs in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES). We in English are very pleased to be supporters of this new and important. initiative at St. John’s. The course I stopped through last week is cross-listed – it’s both CRES 1000 and English 3680.

Dr. Raj Chetty, an expert in Caribbean Studies and Black Studies, describes this class as – to quote his syllabus – rooted “in Indigenous Studies and Black studies as foundations for thinking about global forms of racism, anti-racist struggle, and international solidarity movements.” In my visit, I was struck by the class’s efforts to come to grips with ongoing events in the world, including recently the controversial execution of Marcellus Williams in Missouri. Dr. Chetty read for the class a poem written by Williams, using this very recent event to help think about the issues that are central to this class.

As we all know, there’s a common misconception about English courses that they are impractical or unattached to crucial issues in the world. I don’t think that’s true about any of our classes – not even my Shakespeare class! – but I was struck very powerfully when visiting this class that Dr. Chetty does an impressive job of bringing his students into urgent and meaninful conversations about issues in the present day.

Since we know that many English majors are also double majors or minors with CRES, we also want to include these links for any interested students –

CRES MAJOR

CRES MINOR

 

About Steve Mentz 1278 Articles
I teach Shakespeare and the blue humanities at St. John's in New York City.

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