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Social Justice & Antiracism

These courses address issues of power, privilege, oppression, and collective liberation. They present concepts and methods that deepen students’ ability to understand and constructively engage with issues at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, and more. These courses include inner and interpersonal practices, such as working with emotions and cultivating resilience. They may also include historical analysis and case studies, artistic expression, public scholarship, and opportunities for community engagement and social action. All courses in this area emphasize critical thinking and communication skills.

COR-315/315E Special Topics: Social Justice & Antiracism (3)

These courses address issues of power, privilege, oppression and collective liberation. They present concepts and methods that deepen students’ ability to understand and constructively engage with issues at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality and more.

EDU-445 Multicultural Children’s Literature (3)

Using a contemplative approach to literacy, this course provides an overview of trade books, differentiated by reading level, and media for students grades K-8. This course includes critically reading, selecting, and evaluating materials appropriate for grade-level literary and interdisciplinary instruction. A range of genres, illustrators, and authors are explored, including multicultural trade books representing a diverse student population. This course addresses the needs of all students by incorporating listening, speaking, reading, and writing in literacy instruction. The development of text sets and integrated units of study aligned to CDE Quality teaching standards, Culturally Linguistic standards, and CDE Elementary academic standards is presented. Includes practicum hours.

ENV-257/257E Food Justice (3)

An introduction to the food justice movement, this course examines it from the local, national, and international levels. Topics include food policy, grassroots movements and action, food production and food access as they relate to the systems of privilege and oppression that shape them. Equally, this course explores the actions of various communities working towards empowerment and liberation. Students engage with relevant theory, hands-on service-learning site visits, as well as contact with professionals, activists, and impacted communities in the food justice movement. Prerequisite: COR150

ENV-355/355E Environmental Justice (3)

An examination of contemporary issues of environmental justice and racism in the United States and throughout the world. The environmental justice movement is based on social justice and multicultural issues. Prerequisite: COR150 or COR113. Required for ENV majors.

ENV-363/363E Indigenous Environmental Issues (3)

An exploration of the historical relationship between indigenous peoples and their environment in each of the ecosystems under consideration; change in the relationship as a result of European contact; modernization and development; and the current integration of these areas into the present global market economy.

INTD-210/210E Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies (3)

Gender and women’s studies begins with Hanisch’s premise that the personal is political as a means of thinking about personal issues as broader political and structural issues, resulting in various levels of privilege and oppression. We investigate first-wave feminism, second-wave concerns and critiques, and third-wave ideologies and queer theories. We examine the constructed nature of gender and identity via historical, theoretical, and cross-cultural texts to develop conscious approaches to thinking about the intersections of race, sexuality, and class. In addition, the course seeks to sharpen our critical awareness of how gender operates in cultural contexts and in our own lives in order to participate in social change. We read a diverse group of historical and contemporary feminist and queer writers, activists, and theorists.

INTD-310 Feminist and Queer Theory Methods of Inquiry (3)

Feminist and queer scholarship informs methods of information gathering and distribution, and challenges philosophies of science and how science has begun to address these challenges. The course examines how feminist, queer, and contemplative ways of knowing can inform the research process, and explores postcolonial, diasporic, and critical race perspectives on feminist epistemology. Students take a contemplative tour through diverse methods of inquiry, including but not limited to memoir, observation, participant observation, archival research, and experimentation. Through personal reflection and observation of gender in the world, students create diverse work products that both bear witness to gender in the everyday world and stand in resistance to oppressive power structures.

MUS-260 Listening to Jazz (3)

Open to all students, this class examines the multifaceted traditions of jazz, arguably the most significant musical development of the twentieth century. Through readings and by listening to recorded examples and to live music, students explore the cultural and artistic elements of this richly expressive musical form.

PAX-250 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (3)

Students investigate theories and practices in the field of peace and conflict studies through case studies of local and global social change initiatives. What are the causes and conditions of violence and the conditions that foster peace and social justice? How do peacebuilders from diverse backgrounds articulate their vision for a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world? What can we learn from historical and contemporary peacebuilders working at a range of levels—from Nobel peace laureates to individuals and organizations in Boulder and beyond? How do they, and we, communicate and put our values into action? We will explore ethics, practical tools, and strategies for social change through contemplative inquiry, community-based learning, films, and conversation with individuals and organizations working locally and globally.

PAX-335 Socially Engaged Spirituality (3)

A study of varied traditions and ways of articulating socially engaged spirituality from historical and contemporary perspectives. The lives and work of Gandhi and King are used as reference points, and examples from around the globe engage students in understanding the dynamics of socially engaged spirituality in different settings and in their own lives. As they investigate the relationship between personal and social transformation, students develop a personal dialog with selected peacemakers and justice seekers. Assignments encourage students to clarify their own ethical principles and commitments, deepening the inquiry through shared exploration. Source material may range from autobiography and biography to literary texts and film. Methods include individual and group contemplative practices, community-based fieldwork, and creative expression.

PAX-340/340E Conflict Transformation: Theory and Practice (3)

An exploration of theories and practices of conflict transformation in a range of settings and locations. The course examines interpersonal and structural dynamics of conflict, building skills to work effectively with individuals and small groups, and studying attempts to end cycles of violence, revenge, and trauma at the national and international level. We investigate our own assumptions about conflict, the potency of cultural and religious differences, the complexities of intervention, and the possibility of transformation. We consider the role of curiosity, creativity, and the moral imagination in peacebuilding. Students in this course write and produce original digital stories and acquire beginning level skills in mediation.

REL-212 Queer Theory and Religion (3)

This course examines the history of the LGBTQI movement through queer, trans and non-binary ideas of gender identity in contrast with homo and hetero normativity. Relevant political and legal issues will be addressed (i.e. anti-trans legislation, book bans, “Don’t Say Gay” laws). Religious and intergenerational trauma around issues of sexual expression, marriage etc., and forms of oppression such as patriarchy, abuse and discrimination are examined in depth, along with queer ecology, two spirit people and intersectionality.

REL-323 Religious Experience in Africa: Flash of the Spirit (3)

The course is an introduction to the cultural study of traditional African religions. We begin with close attention to cosmology, the traditional view of the world as filled with living, sacred powers. These powers are experienced in various ways: as ancestral presences; nature deities; personal guardian spirits. Therefore, we will focus on ritual practices, ways of communicating with unseen forces to bring communal and personal healing, restoring balance in the human relationship to nature. Cross-listed as REL623.

WRI-210/210E Experimental and Activist Literatures (3)

This course introduces Black Mountain Poets, the Beats, New York School, Black Arts Movement, Language Poets, New Narrative, and Jack Kerouac School faculty work—poetic movements and writers that continue to influence Naropa’s writing landscape, innovation, aesthetics, and activism. By exploring experimental lineages, Naropa archives, as well as contemporary trends influencing the Kerouac School milieu, we participate as readers/writers/activists and invoke critical/creative awareness that informs the writing process. This creative reading and writing workshop invokes a vital space of active experimentation and culminates in a creative portfolio.

WRI-361/361E Seminar: Contemporary Native North American & Indigenous Literature (3)

This course engages in the literatures of contemporary Indigenous/Native North American writers. From non-linear narratives to Indigenous world views, this literature seminar focuses on subversions of colonial narratives and the reality of past, present, and future Native literature through contemporary writers, thinkers, and artists from across Turtle Island. Students end this course with a community-based project focused on literature, narrative subversion, and topics related to this course.

Contemplative Inquiry & Practice

Social Justice & Antiracism

Sustainability & Ecological Regeneration

Artistic Expressions & Creative Practice

Leadership & Service

Research & Communication

Becoming familiar and getting intimate with our own direct experience opens up compassion and empathy for other people’s lived experiences and that just ripples out into greater awareness of system level sentience. When we get familiar with our own suffering and joy it engenders and makes obvious our interconnection to each other and thus connects us with the greater joy and suffering of everyone else.

A healthy community is filled with difference, so for the future of humanity, all of us are needed. Everyone of all faiths and kinds need to be there, but it’s not easy. There are different needs and different values, and conflict will naturally happen, but I think that the best of us is when we can hold that conflict with courage.

At Naropa, we have all these conversations about systems – how they work, how to decolonize them, and how to create anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, anti-capitalist efforts that help dismantle oppressive systems. There’s always different ways of going about these conversations, but I think what Naropa does different is include students in the dialogue around what does change look like?

Interested in Social Justice & Anti-Racism?

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Social Justice & Antiracism

Interested in Social Justice & Anti-Racism?

Read our blog or listen to our podcast!

Illuminating Injustice

Everything We Do Is Supposed to Be Art

Emergence of Beloved Community

Social Justice & Antiracism

Interested in Social Justice & Anti-Racism?

Read our blog or listen to our podcast!

Illuminating Injustice

Everything We Do Is Supposed to Be Art

Emergence of Beloved Community

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Spring and Summer Start Dates for the MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Concentrations

In support of students and in response to federal legislation impacting financial aid for graduate students, Naropa University will be accepting applications for MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling for spring starts through January 10.