Diversity Certificate Program

An Interdisciplinary Program
Dr. Alan I. Marcus
214 Allen Hall
Box H
Mississippi State University, MS 39762
Telephone: 662-325-7075
E-mail: aimarcus@history.msstate.edu

The Diversity Certificate program seeks to teach workplace success by providing the multi-cultural knowledge and skills necessary to navigate among a diverse workforce. At the heart of this post-baccalaureate program is the demand that students learn and think critically about race, race relations, ethnicity, social class and inequality, religion, and gender. This requirement will produce employees who have the necessary sensitivity and understanding to accept important leadership challenges and to advance themselves and their workplace.

Its methods are straightforward. Each student seeking a certificate must take at least one of two courses from each of four distinct fields: History, Sociology, Gender Studies and African American Studies. Students are free to take more than the minimum number of courses; however, the program an intense immersion in one course from each area will enhance understanding sufficient for business persons to achieve objectives most sensibly and expeditiously.

The choice of these four fields is deliberate and precise. History will enable students to learn the various forces, activities and trends leading to the present day world; history grants perspective. Sociology will explore and explain the interactions among and between diverse peoples in the present day; it explores social dynamics. Both African American and Gender Studies offer a more multivariate approach. Borrowing from a number of disciplines and specialties, they offer an interdisciplinary, multicultural perspective, revealing numerous, tangible intersections among institutional sexism and racism, power relationships, economic allocation and self and group actualization.

Together, these four fields create a tightly woven package that will make a true difference both in the students who take the courses and the workplaces in which they operate. Each of the courses has a similar approach using classic writings, great thinkers and pertinent events as well as analysis and understanding of those whose voices in social settings remain obscured. Each utilizes the most recent information and insight to fashion an acute demonstration of how multicultural knowledge and understanding is essential to successful functioning in all aspects of the modern world.

Admission:
Applicants must be graduates of accredited undergraduate institutions and be admitted by the Graduate Office either as a degree-program or unclassified graduate student. Students wishing to apply for the certificate program must submit a writing sample explaining how they plan to use the Diversity Certificate in their careers. This document is required from degree-program and unclassified graduate students and must be submitted directly to Dr. Alan Marcus. International students must obtain a TOEFL score of 625 or better.

Requirements:
The Diversity Certificate program requires a B or better in 12 credit hours earned by taking one course from each of the following pairs.

History 8773 Issues in Women's History or History 8783 Issues in African American History
Sociology 8983 Seminar in Race Relations or Sociology 8993 Sociology of Gender
African American Studies 8793 Race and Cultural Diversity in the Workplace or African American Studies 8613 Racism and the US Color Line
Gender Studies 8113 Exploring Issues in Gender or Gender Studies 8103 Gender and Work

Graduate Courses:
AAS 8793 - Race and Cultural Diversity in the Workplace (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program) [same as HI 8793]. 3 hours
AAS 8603 - Racism and the US Color Line (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program) [same as HI 8603]. 3 hours
GS 8963 - Exploring Issues in Gender (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program) [same as SO 8963]. 3 hours
GS 8973 - Gender and Work (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program) [same as SO 8973]. 3 hours
HI 8773 - Issues in Women's History (Graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program). 3 hours
HI 8783 - Issues in African American History (Graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program). 3 hours
SO 8983 - Seminar in Race Relations (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program). 3 hours
SO 8993 - Sociology of Gender (graduate standing and enrollment in Diversity Certificate program). 3 hours

African American Studies Faculty - [ Diversity Certificate Program ]

Dr. Dennis A. Doyle

History
Phone: (662) 325-7081
Email: ddoyle@history.msstate.edu
Fax: (662) 325-2225

Professor Doyle completed his masters and Ph.D. in history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2006. His dissertation was on Harlem and the development of a new racial formation in American psychiatry, 1938-1968. He taught in the Africana Studies Department at Stony Brook, where he lectured on the politics of race and the modern color line. He has also lectured on the history of African Americans. His teaching interests also include African Americans in science and technology, as well as public health.

Dr. Gregory Meyjes

Email: meyjes@intersolidaris.com

Dr. Meyjes is the founder and CEO of Solidaris ( http://www.intersolidaris.com ), a cultural consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. He earned his doctorate at the University of North Carolina. He also studied at The Hague (Netherlands), Heidelberg (Germany), Oxford (UK), and Lancaster (UK). He was a professor at North Carolina State University and is currently a visiting professor for intercultural education and internationalization at Middle Tennessee State University. He is an applied sociolinguist who specializes in attitudes and policies that concern cultural minorities. He uses a rights-based approach to social justice in his teaching and research at universities. Dr. Meyjes is active on the international scene, and he helps to foster institutional and cultural links throughout the world. Dr. Meyjes is truly a citizen of the world. He has lived in many countries and speaks, reads, and writes multiple languages with near-equal fluency. He is a recipient of several Fulbright and other post-doctoral awards.