Overlay 1: U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier are not required to complete the US and Global overlays (see the the prior degree requirements). The information below pertains to students who start at Northwestern after Spring 2023.
This overlay addresses the impact of histories, institutions, and/or social structures on groups and on individuals primarily in the United States, focusing on the interconnected issues of racism/antiracism, equality/inequality and justice/injustice.
learning objectives
In courses satisfying this overlay students will:
- Engage with scholarship describing the historical and contemporary structures, processes, human-environment relationships, and practices that shape racism and anti-racism; power and resistance; justice and injustice; equality and inequality; agency and subjection; belonging and subjection, with a primary, but not exclusive, focus on the United States.
- Explore the social, political, environmental, and cultural bases of these relationships, structures, processes, and practices, and examine how they constitute individuals' groups.
- Reflect on one's position within these structures, processes, and practices.
- Acquire the knowledge and develop the skills necessary to work with key analytical concepts that often define individuals and groups, including but not limited to ability, age, education, environmentality, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, language, nationality, race, religion, politics, sexuality, and social status.
- Analyze how these and other terms intersect and overlap, with attention to the dynamism and variety of experiences and expressions.
choosing courses
Review the list of approved courses for the US Overlay. Note that an overlay course may simultaneously count for any other requirement in which it is approved (such as foundational discipline, major, or the advanced expression requirement).
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