Cultural Literacy Course Criteria

Courses that meet the Cultural Literacy requirement (either US: Difference, Inequality and Agency or Global Perspectives) must meet the following Senate-approved criteria: 

US: Difference, Inequality and Agency (DIA) 

These courses will develop students’ analytical and reflective capacities to help them understand and ethically engage with the ongoing (cultural, economic, political, social, etc.) power imbalances that have shaped and continue to shape the United States. This engagement may also include the relation of the United States to other regions of the world. Each course will include scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of communities historically marginalized by these legacies of inequality. 

Each course will undertake one or more of the following: 

  • Teach respectful listening and tools for ethical dialogue in order to expand students’ abilities to practice civil conversation and engage with deeply felt or controversial issues. 
  • Facilitate student reflection on their own multiple social identifications and on how those identifications are formed and located in relation to power. 

Each course will address each of the following: 

  • Intersecting aspects of identity such as race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, indigeneity, national origin, religion, or ability. 
  • The uses of power to classify, rank, and marginalize based upon these aspects of identity, as well as considerations of agency on the part of marginalized groups. 
  • Historical structures, contemporary structures, forms of knowledge, cultural practices, or ideologies that perpetuate or change the distribution of power in society. 

Each course syllabus for DIA courses must include the following statement: 

“This course fulfills the United States: Difference, Inequality, and Agency category of the Cultural Literacy Core Education requirement, a requirement informed by UO student activism [https://senate.uoregon.edu/senate-motions/us1718-18-repeal-multicultura…]. It is meant to develop students’ analytical and reflective capacities to help them understand and ethically engage with the ongoing (cultural, economic, political, social, etc.) power imbalances that have shaped and continue to shape the United States. In addition to considering the scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of historically marginalized communities, students in DIA courses: 

  • Inquire into intersecting [provide link] aspects of identity such as race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, socioeconomic status, indigeneity, national origin, religion, or ability; 
  • Analyze uses of power to marginalize on the basis of identities, as well as the assertions of agency, resistance, and resilience by marginalized groups; and 
  • Examine historical and contemporary structures, forms of knowledge, cultural practices, or ideologies that perpetuate or change the distribution of power in society. 

and undertake one or more of the following: 

  • Reflect on one's own multiple social identifications and on how they are formed and located in relation to power. 
  • Practice respectful listening and ethical dialogue around deeply felt or controversial issues.”

Global Perspectives (GP) 

These courses will foster student encounter with and critical reflection upon cultures, identities, and ways of being in global contexts. Each course will include substantial scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of communities under study, as sources permit. 

Each course will undertake one or more of the following: 

  • Teach respectful listening and civil conversation as critical tools for collective student engagement with topics that are controversial today; 
  • Provide critical vocabulary and concepts allowing students to engage and discuss topics with which students may be unfamiliar. 

Each course will engage with one of more of the following: 

  • Texts, literature, art, testimonies, practices, or other cultural products that reflect systems of meaning or beliefs beyond the US context; 
  • Power relations involving different nations, peoples and identity groups, or world regions; 
  • Consideration of hierarchy, marginality or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, or ability (or some combination). 

Note: Approved study abroad programs also fulfill the Global Perspectives requirement. 

Each course syllabus for Global Perspective courses must include the following statement: 

“This course fulfills the Global Perspectives category of the Cultural Literacy Core Education requirement. A Global Perspectives course aims to foster student encounter with and critical reflection upon cultures, identities, and ways of being in global contexts beyond the United States. Students will consider substantial scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of communities under study, as sources permit. Global Perspectives courses, students will do one or more of the following: 

  • Engage texts, literature, art, testimonies, practices, or other cultural products that reflect systems of meaning or beliefs beyond the U.S. context; 
  • Analyze power relations involving different nations, peoples, and identity groups or world regions; 
  • Examine hierarchy, marginality, or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexuality, nationality, or ability (or some combination of these) 

and undertake one or more of the following: 

  • Discuss possibly unfamiliar topics using critical vocabulary and concepts. 
  • Practice respectful listening and civil dialogue around controversial issues.” 

Approved By: University Senate        Date: 05/09/2018

Motion Number: US17/18-18

Revision History:

Revised US22/23-20 Date 05/24/2023

Revised US20/21-21 Date 04/07/2021 

Original US17/18-18 Date 05/09/2018