The faculty of Harvard’s English Department has proposed a required course for English concentrators which focuses on authors “marginalized for historical reasons.”
The Committee on Undergraduate Educational Policy will make a decision on the proposal next week, according to The Harvard Crimson.
Authors to be examined in the course “could have been ‘marginalized’ due to issues including ‘racism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity,’” says English Department Chair James Simpson.
“The humanities actually have an immense opportunity here,” Simpson said. “Those courses could be in ethnic literature, or in courses where you have predominately women authors.”
The English department, which welcomed 49 new concentrators in the fall, would institute the new requirement for current freshmen who have not yet declared concentrations. The requirement would not create any new courses, but will instead highlight existing courses, according to [Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies for the English Department Derek] Miller.
“There’s no class. That’s one of the things that’s different from our other requirements,” Miller said. “Courses will be decided on a semester-by-semester basis.”
The new requirement comes as some students and faculty ramp up efforts to create a more diverse curriculum for undergraduates. In 2015, a College Diversity Report recommended expanding the number of courses that cover diversity and flagging those courses so students more easily find them when searching for courses online.
Late last year a Harvard “diversity and inclusion working group” issued a 37-page report which included the recommendation “augmenting the accessibility and diversity of departmental offerings.”
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