Spring 2026 courses

American Ethnic Studies

AMETH 160: Introduction to American Ethnic Studies

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Multiple sections available
This course prepares students to function productively in our multicultural society and provides a deep understanding of America's race relations and how race and ethnic understandings have been shaped across history. We explore Native American, African American, Mexican/Latina/o American, Asian American, and white American historical dynamics. We offer you the opportunity to participate in some of the most difficult yet rewarding conversations in today’s America.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
K-State Core: Social & Behavioral Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

AMETH 300: Intercultural Competence in Institutions

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Dr. Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez
Online - full semester
Uses exercises and readings to nurture a deep understanding of America's race relations and its diverse histories. Students will develop models for implementing cultural competency policies and practices within varied social institutions. Through engaging activities and discussions, you'll have the chance to break down stereotypes and appreciate diversity. Our program provides a safe space for fruitful conversations and encourages honing communication tactics to navigate cultural differences. Students will engage with local community organizations for their final project! This course is required to complete the Intercultural Competence Certificate offered by AMETH. Fulfills K-State 8 Human Diversity within the U.S. and Historical Perspectives

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

AMETH 370: Politics of Women of Color

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Dr. Natalie Aikens
M/W/F 1:30-2:20 pm
Author Laura Grappo refers to the present as “an era of intensified precarity for Latinx subjects.” Despite this uncertainty, it is also an exciting, meaningful time to be a Latinx woman!

Latinx women are breaking barriers and demanding change. María Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize; Ada Limón just completed her term as Poet Laureate of the United States; Zoe Saldaña won the 2024 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Emilia Pérez; and Mexico elected its first female President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, in 2024. Latinx women are leaders in social movements, industry, and politics.

Students taking this course will come to understand why Latinx identity matters and be able to articulate why the individual is political. We will explore major issues in the politics of Latinx identity as well as the heightened uncertainty, the power, and the complexities of being Latinx today, including: the freedom and limits of Borderlands, Multiculturalism, and Queer Latinidad. We will explore literature, essays, contemporary news stories, and films to unpack contemporary issues and consider Latinx cultures. Films in this course may include Emilia Pérez (2024), West Side Story (2021), In the Heights (2021), and Roma (2018). All students are welcome.

Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

AMETH 560: Topic: Race and Sports Mascots

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Dr. Spintz Harrison
M/W/F 10:30-11:20 am
Sports play an integral learning experience for players and spectators. All levels of sporting organizations have experienced problems and issues that were and are based upon the color of skin. These organizations support create laws that follow the majority of societies ideology. This course examines sports initial creation, development, and expansion up to present day.
Professional leagues, college and universities, high school, middle school and elementary schools all participate in sporting activities. Focusing on examples from all sporting groups allows student to discussed and analyze what worked and didn't work with each supporting organization.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

AMETH 560: Topic: Sexuality, Race, Religion

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Dr. Diane Hinrichs
Online - January Intersession 12/29/2025-1/16/2026
Explore the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, spirituality and sexual orientation as it relates to LGBT individuals. Learn about the historical and contemporary issues impacting LGBT communities and how experience with these issues impact LGBT students’ identity development.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

GWSS 105: Introduction to Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

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Multiple sections available
This introductory class is an interdisciplinary analysis of personal experiences and social and political institutions as they shape and are shaped by the intersections of gender, race, class, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, citizenship, and ability on local, national, and global levels. Topics include the roles of biology and social construction in shaping gender and sexuality; sources of structural inequities; and feminist, queer, trans, anti-racist, and anti-colonial activisms.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Ethical Reasoning and Responsibility
K-State Core: Social & Behavioral Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

GWSS 220: Climate Justice

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Dr. Valerie Padilla Carroll
M/W 10:30-11:20 am
Want to understand how climate change connects to real-world struggles for justice—and how people are fighting back? This course dives into climate justice movements in the U.S. and around the globe, exploring how race, gender, class, and geography shape both the impacts of climate change and the fight for solutions.

K-State Core: Social & Behavioral Sciences

GWSS 300: Topic: Race, Gender, and Media

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Dr. Anh Nguyen
Tu/Th 9:30-10:45 am
Informed by critical cultural studies, this course opens transformative discussion on the two concerns. Firstly, how media practices construct the representation, consumption, and politics of race and gender. Secondly, how race and gender meanings shape back to the media production, ethics, and laws. Situating multimodal media texts in the modality of inquiry, we will unpack critical perspectives of race, gender, and media across the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and systemic contexts. The course will provide helpful resources for students and community members who are interested in interdisciplinary studies of communication; American ethnic studies; gender, sexuality, and queer studies; and rhetoric, media, and culture.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S.

GWSS 365: Reproductive Rights and Wrongs

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Dr. Rachel Levitt
Tu 2:30-5:20 pm
SisterSong defines reproductive justice as "the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities." How have people in the past fought for these rights and how many of these rights are currently under threat? This course will explore contemporary reproductive politics within the historical context of struggles for reproductive justice in the United States and globally. Our readings will center the most marginalized and examine how women of color have fought for reproductive freedom, how LGBTQ folks and disabled people have fought for the right to parent and for bodily autonomy, and how the feminist health movement fought for medical knowledge and autonomy in birth.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

GWSS 405: Resistance and Movements for Social Change

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Dr. Rachel Levitt
W 2:30-5:20 pm
This course focuses on activism people have engaged in to bring about better life circumstances for themselves and their communities. This includes working class struggles, HIV/AIDS activisms, Native liberation movements, the MeToo movement, BLM, activism opposing DEI bans, Trans Prison Abolition, Rights for Girls, the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, The Self Employed Women's Association, as well as others.

K-State 8: Global Issues and Perspectives & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: Global Perspectives/International Studies Overlay

GWSS 810: Key Concepts in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

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Dr. Melissa Poll
Tu 3:55-4:45 pm
This graduate seminar in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies will explore core concepts, research methods and methodologies, and feminist theories in a variety of foundational GWSS readings. We begin with key feminist texts and culminate in an exploration of eco-critical and critical race feminisms. Students will develop resources to work with their own graduate research. This course fulfills the core requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies.

Social Transformation Studies

STRAN 550: Practicing Social Justice

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Dr. Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez
Online - 2nd 8 weeks 3/24/2026-5/15/2026
What can we learn from social justice organizers in MHK and throughout the state and region? What wisdom, hard truths, and lessons learned do they have to share about how to create lasting change in our communities? This class is an applied and immersive experience where students will get to know and work closely with different local social justice organizations & nonprofits each week.

K-State 8: Human Diversity within the U.S. & Social Sciences
Arts & Sciences: U.S. Multicultural Overlay

STRAN 600: Pathways to Social Change

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Dr. Rachel Levitt
Tu/Th 11:30 am-12:45 pm
This course will prepare students for graduation in a fun and supportive cohort environment where they will learn how to find a meaningful career, live their values, and chart their own paths to success. This is a seminar-style course in which students get to work closely with Dr. Levitt and their peers to design and launch a research-based social transformation project on a topic and in a form of their choosing. It is open to all interested juniors and seniors & is required for STRAN Majors.