social identities fits within H u m a n i t i e s

Overview: We will be learning about personal and social identities and how many of these identities intersect with one another to make you YOU! You will explore how one or more of your social identities fits within your academic discipline (e.g., what is means to me to be a woman in science, …to be a Black engineer with a learning disability, …to be a queer Latino in nursing, etc.).

Purpose: The purpose of these reflections is to get you to think about how the course concepts apply to your life – specifically, the get you to reflect on and identify various personal and social identities (yours and others) and contextualize them within your discipline (e.g., sciences, arts, etc.) (SLO#6) as well as develop strategies to be integrated physiological, socio-cultural, and psychological beings engaged in learning and self-development throughout your life (GE Goal #4).

Task:

1. Describe which identity (or identities) you identify with strongly – what makes you YOU?
2. Describe your academic identity:
   1. For those of you with a major (you know which academic path you are on): Describe your major and you career plans as you see them now.
   2. For those of you without a major (you may be undeclared, unsure, etc.): Describe what you are interested in or a career path you may see yourself on in the future.
3. Reflect on how your identity(ies) fit with your academic discipline.
   1. Explains how it (they) fits or how it (they) doesn’t fit.
      1. If you mentioned more that one identity, please take the time to reflect on all of them in terms of fit as you may have one that fits and one that doesn’t.
   2. If you perceive a lack of fit, reflect on what might help (be creative here-more role models, more representation, change in the system, etc.–the sky is the limit!).
4. Finally, find at least one person in your field with your same identity(ies). Google or other search engines are your friends here. Read a little about this person and describe how they are similar to and different from you.

*Note: Stop by student/office hours if you are having problems with this; Kyra and I are happy to help.)

Criteria for Success: This Reflection Paper is worth 20 points.

• Describe your own identity(ies). (3pts)
• Describe your own academic discipline/path. (3pts)
• Reflection on fit (see questions above to guide your reflection). (8pts)
• Identify at least one person in your field with your same identity(ies). (3pts)
• Well-written (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.). (3pts)