Students majoring in English at Harvard University will soon be required to take a diversity course featuring authors that have been “marginalized for historical reasons.”
Students majoring in English at Harvard University will soon be required to take a diversity course featuring authors that have been “marginalized for historical reasons.”
James Simpson, who chairs the English Department at Harvard, told Campus Reform that the requirement was created in response to a “very reflective” letter from a student, which argued that there was insufficient representation of racial minorities and women in the Harvard curriculum and proposed that the English department address this by instituting a diversity course requirement.
The proposal, which passed swiftly through the three governing bodies of the English department, was formally approved during a departmental meeting on January 24, and subsequently earned the endorsement of the Educational Policy Committee, which has oversight of changes to departmental requirements.
According to The Harvard Crimson, the new curriculum will affect students, starting with the Class of 2020, who declare an English concentration in the fall of 2017 or later.
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