Faculty May Rename Dept.

The Committee on Ethnic Studies is considering an elongation of its name in an effort to recognize the diversity of its focus areas and to broaden its curricular scope in the future.

Presented yesterday before the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—the proposed name change to “The Committee on the Study of Ethnicity, Migration, Indigeneity, and Human Rights” would address the numerous academic dimensions that may not be fully represented under the current title.

“This new name will better reflect the intellectual work that’s being done in these areas—very exciting work, I might add,” said committee member Deborah D. Foster about the four focus areas featured in the proposed moniker.

Unlike the outdated name currently used, the new title would take an interdisciplinary and global approach that more accurately reflects the fluxes in population, increased globalization, and cultural changes undergone by certain ethnic groups, according to committee member Michele Lamont, professor of sociology, European studies, and African and African American studies.

The comprehensiveness of the new name would allow the committee to develop a “more integrated and broader” curriculum that could better accommodate students’ intellectual needs under a larger umbrella, Lamont said.

Foster—a senior lecturer on folklore and mythology—added that faculty can likely use the name makeover as an opportunity to develop new courses.

The proposal—presented at yesterday’s meeting by FAS humanities dean Diana Sorensen and African and African American studies and English professor Werner Sollors—will undergo further discussion with members of the committee on ethnic studies before returning to the Faculty Council for review.

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.