Political Science Department Releases Statement in Support of Asian Americans
By Alicia Method, Staff Writer
In response to the murder of six Asian-American women in Georgia this March, the Political Science Department has released a statement titled “Standing with Asian Americans #StopAAPIHate.”
The statement asserts the department’s intention to stand in solidarity with the AAPI community at Gettysburg College and the #StopAAPIHate movement through continuing anti-racist work in their classrooms and curriculm. Additionally, the document acknowledged the deeply embedded structures of racism against Asian Americans in the United States government and history. These prejudices, they wrote, continue today in “racially charged rhetoric” during the coronavirus pandemic which has provoked “a new wave of racially-motivated violence against Asian Americans.”
While not specified in the statement, Political Science Department Chair Caroline Hartzell stated in her email to majors and faculty members that the department has also committed to providing free bystander intervention training sessions framed around violence against Asian Americans. The sessions are available to the entire department, with many faculty already having completed the program.
As noted in the document, this communication from the Political Science department comes on the heels of a previous statement published after the killing of George Floyd last May.
This announcement, the “Political Science Department’s Statement on Structural Racism,” provided an in-depth explanation of detailed, quantifiable steps the department would take to address issues of race in the classroom and beyond. These included encouraging students to take courses which heavily engage racial injustice and restructuring major requirements and curriculum goals.
Professors have engaged with these goals in various ways. One avenue has been to connect with students on the syllabi by adding an introductory paragraph which addresses the department’s statements. Hartzell, a proponent of this tactic, also engages with this topic on an international level by discussing structural and intersectional issues of race in the classroom.
Additionally, new faculty member and Assistant Professor of Political Science Kevin Pham will be teaching a course titled “Race and Political Theory.” Visiting Assistant Professors Lucy Britt and Liza Gorden will be teaching “Race and the Right to Vote” and “Race and Politics,” respectively. The Political Science department’s Student Advisory Group on Structural Racism is currently working on a survey with the goal of measuring the extent to which issues of race are discussed in courses.
One of the students involved in this group, James Lamb ‘21, expressed a positive reaction to the department’s recent statement: “I appreciate the firm and unambiguous stance that the Political Science Department has taken in releasing this statement. It clearly identifies attitudes and structures that exist within the past and present of United States politics that perpetuate hate and violence against Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander people. The statement condemns these attitudes and structures, and details how the Department intends to ensure, through action, education, and dialogue, that they remain absent from our curriculum. The Department’s clear anti-racist stance, which acknowledges an active responsibility to continuously identify and root out racist structures and attitudes, gives me confidence that the students and faculty within the department will continue putting action to these words.”
When speaking about the department’s involvement in anti-racist work, Political Science Professor Bruce Larson and Hartzell expressed the sentiment that politics and racial injustices are entwined in this country and their work. Larson noted that politics is essentially studying power, and so is studying race. “[It is] impossible to understand American politics without understanding race,” he said.
