STPEC 101 | Introduction to STPEC
TuTh | 11:30am – 12:45pm
Shemon Salam
3 credits
This course will familiarize new students with the program and its vision. STPEC is a rigorous, democratically run, interdisciplinary academic program. STPEC is also a community of students, staff, instructors, alumni, and friends that will help you navigate your time at UMass. Ideally this course will also familiarize us with each other.
The content of this course is organized around concepts students will encounter in their other STPEC requirements, as well as in the STPEC community and the greater world. It will provide an introduction to social theory, political economy, race and ethnicity, gender, masculinities and femininities, globalization and inequality in the Global North and the Global South. Assignments facilitate exploration of these and related topics. Students will have the opportunity to learn the value of social theory and how to make an argument; communicate for effective dialogue, and how to begin to identify social justice issues.
STPEC 101, like STPEC's core classes, is seminar-style. This means small groups with an emphasis on discussion and reflection.
This class is open to STPEC majors
STPEC 189 | Introduction to Radical Social Theory
We | 4:00pm – 5:15pm
Shemon Salam
4 credits
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This is an introductory course to radical social theory (formerly STPEC 190A). Our focus is the history of social thought in the West, and the post-colonial critiques of some of these ideas. In this course, students will learn that "radical" means "at the root," and radical social theory is theory that explains the roots of social inequalities and proposes ways of transforming society to achieve justice. (Gen. Ed. HS, DG) |
STPEC 291X | STPEC Executive Committee
Time TBD
Toussaint Losier
1 credit
Enrollment required for students serving as representatives to the STPEC Executive Committee. Requirements for credit include: attending an orientation session and all student representative and full Executive Committee meetings, delivering weekly announcements to designated STPEC courses and, in STPEC courses in which they are enrolled, facilitating a 15 min forum prior to both full Executive Committee meetings.
This course will be scheduled at a mutually agreed upon time.
STPEC 320 | Writing for Critical Consciousness
Monday | 4:00 – 6:30 pm
Boone Shear
3 credits
Junior Year Writing
The STPEC Junior Writing Seminar focuses on individual development of voice. We will weave this theme through standard essay assignments, weekly response papers, cover letters and resumes, and a research paper with a theme of your choosing. I encourage integration of ideas from your other courses and experiences. Be prepared to think critically and examine texts carefully. We will be sharing our writing with each other – be ready to give and receive constructive feedback. This course meets only once a week; attendance is crucial.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. STPEC majors only. Prerequisite: College Writing or equivalent.
STPEC 391H | STPEC Core Seminar I
TuTh | 1:00pm – 2:15pm
Shemon Salam
4 credits
STPEC Core Seminar I looks at the Black Radical Tradition and racial capitalism from the 15th century to World II. Through these two frameworks and methods we will analyze gender, inequality, nationalism, and struggles of the oppressed. This is a student driven course where classroom discussions, presentations, self-reflections, and group work are central to the daily functioning of the class.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. STPEC majors only. PREREQUISITES: One Intro to Social Theory course and one Intro to Political Economy Course chosen from the STPEC Recommended Course List.
STPEC 392H | STPEC Core Seminar II
TuTh | 2:30pm – 3:45pm
Shemon Salam
4 credits
STPEC Core Seminar II focuses on the development of social struggles, political economy, and theory from the 1960s to the present. Continuing our analysis of racial capitalism and empire, Core II will explore how these formations changed due to economic crisis, national liberation, and class struggle. We will research the connections between race, class, gender, sexuality, disease, and other axes of oppression under racial capitalism. A major research paper of the student's choosing will be produced over the course of the semester allowing students to more deeply engage with a topic, and to practice applying the critical methodological and theoretical tools developed in the STPEC curriculum.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. STPEC majors only. PREREQUISITES: One Intro to Social Theory course and one Intro to Political Economy Course chosen from the STPEC Recommended Course List.
STPEC 491H | STPEC Focus Seminar I
Wednesday | 4:00pm-6:30pm
Reparations due to Colonialism, Slavery, Racism & Coloniality: Dilemmas, Debates, Projects
Agustin Lao Montes
4 credits
This seminar’s main purpose is to engage in a historical, theoretical, epistemic, ethical, and political inquiry into the multiple meanings and diverse projects—often at odds with each other—of reparative justice due to slavery, colonialism, structural racism, and coloniality (or neocolonialism). Capitalist modernity, that we can also name as racial-patriarchal capitalism, or the modern/colonial capitalist world-system, is an utterly violent process of globalization constituted since the the long 16th Century (circa 1450-1650) by means of brutal exploitation, expropriation, and dehumanization of colonized and racialized peoples, where we highlight transatlantic slavery and settler colonialism as intertwined processes which provoked holocausts against African and Indigenous peoples. The very claim of historical reparations is due to the deep injuries caused by colonialism and slavery and their persistence in systemic (or structural) racism, cisheteropatriatchy, capitalism, and imperialism, as the pillars which compose the modern/colonial matrix of domination. Given this, historical reparations (or reparative justice) is an ethical-political principle of justice, an historical project of liberation, an antiracist pedagogy, and a political process of organizing against entangled injustices and entwined violences, and for integral justice and to build a better world.
The focus of the course will be on Atlantic coloniality, the triangle of white imperial capitalist domination which configured a translocal geography between Africa, the Americas, and Europe, with special attention given to the proposals for Reparations coming from CARICOM (community of Caribbean countries), the United States, Brazil, and Colombia. At the same time, the course will also look into claims for reparative justice in places like India, where affirmative action has been a matter of public debate since the early 20th Century.
There is a growing body of scholarship and activist intellectual work about historical reparations due to slavery, colonialism, and their “afterlife” in coloniality and systemic racism, from a variety of fields of inquiry and angles of vision. Hence, our readings and dialogues will be informed by diverse perspectives—historical, philosophical, and cultural—and will address distinct postures and debates about reparations (or reparative justice) from local and national to regional and global scales, as well as from different dimensions—economic, symbolic, legal, moral, political. Arguably, historical reparations and reparative justice, are at the forefront of the main epochal challenges and dilemmas that humanity and the planet is facing in the middle of a civilizational crisis. The most radical proposals for reparations imply profound redistribution of power, wealth, recognition and representation in the world, namely a revolutionary politics of liberation and decoloniality. However, there are competing neoliberal proposals which are also labelled as reparations. Therefore, this seminar will explore political and epistemic debates about the meanings and implications of historical reparations and reparative justice. Such debates will be addressed from intersectional perspective on the character of both the matrix of domination and of struggles for justice, equality, and emancipation.
PREREQUISITE: STPEC 391H
Enrollment is limited to 15 Senior and Junior STPEC majors only. Sophomores who obtain permission to enroll from the instructor should contact Monica Garcia for an override. Students may take Focus Seminars to fulfill upper level requirements. See the Recommended Course list for this semester to find out which category this seminar will fulfill and ask Monica to apply that change on SPIRE.
STPEC 492H | STPEC Focus Seminar II
Practical Magic: Femme Vengeance, Healing & Revolution in the Americas
Rachel Weber and Diana Becerra
Tuesday | 4:00pm – 6:30pm
4 credits
This STPEC seminar will examine the relationships between social movements and various manifestations of otherworldly femme power in the post-colonization Americas. Over the course of the semester, it will wrestle with a core set of questions including:
How have revolutionaries understood the relationship between the spiritual realm and the material conditions that uphold their oppressions? How did the co-emergence of capitalism, Protestantism, and settler colonialism set the stage for the interplay between gender-based oppressions and revolutionary formations in the Americas? What role has femme-centered spirituality, witchcraft, deity worship, ancestor veneration, and radical interpretations of organized religion played within revolutionary movements? In what ways have traditional histories of revolutionary movements excluded or excised the presence/power of the femme divine? In what ways do current secular and coalition-based liberation movements touch into femme-centered spiritual practices in order to provide recognizable sacred spaces for rage, destruction, mourning, celebration, rest, and world building?
PREREQUISITE: STPEC 391H
Enrollment is limited to 15 Senior and Junior STPEC majors only. Sophomores who obtain permission to enroll from the instructor should contact Monica Garcia for an override. Students may take Focus Seminars to fulfill upper level requirements. See the Recommended Course list for this semester to find out which category this seminar will fulfill and ask Monica to apply that change on SPIRE.
STPEC 494PI | Praxis
W | 11:15pm – 1:45pm
Shemon Salam
3 credits
Integrative Experience
This course tackles the latest developments in racial capitalism by analyzing social struggles and organizations since the economic crisis of 2007. Using the latest research on gender, class, race, empire, and sexuality this course looks at how crisis and struggle are simultaneously shaping the world. For the final project students build their own organizational website. Students will construct their own organization based on the readings from this semester, STPEC courses, and other courses they have taken.
As an integrative experience (IE) course students are encouraged to draw on knowledge from prior courses, life experiences, and readings from outside the class. Praxis will be driven by applying theory to the real world. This course is highly student driven: composed of presentations, small group discussions, debates, and self-reflection.
This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-STPEC majors.
STPEC 498Y | Practicum – Exploring the Intersection of Theory and Practice
Toussaint Losier
3 credits
This course fulfills the STPEC internship requirement. Students in this course undertake an internship of 120 hours or more in an organization of their choice, and engage in critical reflection on their experience. Fieldwork placements are identified and arranged by each individual student and must be approved by the instructor. Students are encouraged to use this class as an opportunity to synthesize knowledge gained in the classroom and test its applicability to “real life” situations.
To enroll, submit a completed STPEC internship contract before the end of add/drop. Note: you must meet with Monica Garcia and get approval of your placement before you turn in your contract. She can be reached at @email.
STPEC 298: Practicum (1-12 credits, mandatory pass/fail)
STPEC 398: Practicum (1-12 credits, graded)
Note: these courses do not fulfill any STPEC or University requirements.
These two options are for students doing elective internships (i.e., this course does not fulfill the STPEC internship requirement). The primary differences between the courses are grading (STPEC 298 is pass/fail) and recommended final paper length: students in STPEC 298 write about 2-3 pages per credit, and students in STPEC 398 write about 3-4 pages per credit. Students in these courses receive one credit for every 40 hours of work that they complete in an organization of their choice. They must find a faculty sponsor who is willing to grade their written work and submit a grade. The STPEC Internship Advisor can provide assistance with finding placements and faculty sponsors, but this is ultimately each student’s responsibility.
To register, speak with Monica Garcia, Director of STPEC’s Internship Program and complete a STPEC Internship Contract by the end of add/drop.