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At first glance, the work of these CLA researchers may seem to dovetail with the spirit of Proposition 54 and its assumption that classification can never serve good purposes.

Last April, the New York Times reported a sharp up-tick in infant mortality rates in the South, a rise that was especially pronounced within the state's disproportionately poor African American population.

American Indian Studies

David Wilkins will never forget Lois Louis and Vine Deloria, two professors who made an enormous difference in his life.

American Studies

David Noble depends on classroom learning to teach his students that they're studying real people with real problems.

“If you need to engage in analysis and interpretation, in-class learning provides something that online learning can't, because in the give-and-take process of hearing and contemplating others' ideas and testing your own against them, you will actually come to a much deeper understanding."

Participating in class discussions, says McGrath, enables students “to approach cultural texts on a more sophisticated and complex level, and to get a richer experience of culture."

In this age of experiential learning and cyberlearning, the art of human interaction in the classroom continues to thrive. Even large lecture classes have taken on new life. Why do classrooms still matter? What can students get from the classroom that they might not be able to find online or in the field? Here's what some CLA faculty members are saying:

From July through December 2007, Louis Mendoza, chair of the University of Minnesota's Department of Chicano Studies, will bicycle around the perimeter of the United States.

What are you thinking when you check those race and ethnicity boxes on forms and applications? Four CLA scholars have been studying the role those boxes play in maintaining and eradicating social inequality.

• Hazardous to your health


• Dysfunction's function


• Colorblind or colorbind?


• Difference 101: a short syllabus