In this seminar we will learn about spirituality as resistance and connect history, theory, research, and action. Centering indigenous practices both locally and globally, the freedom struggles of BIPOC, and the creative power of diasporic people, we will delve into the philosophies and practices that have shaped the formation of spirituality. We will analyze the impact of imposed colonial forces using critical race theory, ecofeminism, intersectionality, and decoloniality. This course requires rigorous interdisciplinary study of ourselves and our histories.Alongside these investigations, we will engage ritual, putting into practice ancestral wisdom—passed down, safeguarded despite genocide, ecocide, censorship, enslavement, displacement, and forced assimilation. We will integrate multi sensory ways of knowing, making, and being. This course places a strong emphasis on understanding theory and practice. While honoring the distinctions between spirituality and organized religion, we also will learn about faith-based resistance histories in the Bay Area through current-day examples like East Bay Ohlone cultural project mak-’amham, GLIDE’s Daily Free Meal program, the Buddhadharma Sangha at San Quentin State Prison, the Faith Trio – a Muslim, Christian, and Jewish social justice-centered coalition, and many more. This course will include field trips within the Bay Area and students will arrange their own transportation.  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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