Spirituality is not an escape from the material world but a site of resistance, remembrance, and liberation. This seminar examines the significance of spirituality through ancestral societies, the freedom struggles of BIPOC, and the creative power of diasporic peoples. We will study the cyclical contexts of spiritual sensibilities before and after the apocalypse of 1492, and analyze 500+ years of colonial imposition through the lenses of critical race theory, intersectionality, and decoloniality. At the same time, we will celebrate and enact ancestral wisdom safeguarded through genocide, enslavement, ecocide, displacement, and forced assimilation. Twin components of the course — theory and embodiment — will allow us to reflect on and practice ritual, remembrance, gratitude, and healing. Our geographic scope includes Turtle Island, Anahuac, Abya Yala, and diasporic communities across the globe. Our interdisciplinary approach will draw from history, literature, art, astronomy, biology, archeology, and traditional ecological knowledge.Critical Ethnic Studies 2000-level seminars introduce students to the complexities and nuances of intersectionality, gender, disability, decolonial theory & philosophy, in imperialist and non-imperialist societies. 2000-level seminars may incorporate one or more of the following interdisciplinary fields of critical ethnic studies: Africana studies, African-American Studies, Asian American studies, Indigenous studies, Chicano/a /x, and Latino /a/x studies, border studies, cultural studies, critical disability studies, critical gender studies, and global racialized and global silenced communities. Courses can be in-person, hybrid, or online.

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