Requirements for Graduate Certificate in Decolonial Global Studies (DGS)
Students planning to complete the DGS Certificate may find it useful to consult with a DGS core faculty member about their applications. We also encourage you to check in with DGS faculty as you move through the Certificate. Students may apply for the Certificate after completing a course offered by the DGS program. Fall Semester applications are due on the 15th of October and Spring Semester applications are due on the 15th of March.
DGS Certificate requirements include: four courses, a reflective capstone project, and evidence of multi-lingual awareness, as further described below. All courses must be completed with a Grade of B or better.
Coursework
- Two core courses. Students may choose any two of the co-taught core courses to fulfill this requirement. At least one core course will be offered each semester. Core courses are open to all students, but in some cases, priority may be given to Certificate students (e.g. if a course is nearly full).
- Two elective courses: Please consult this Guidelines list for elective courses. Electives that fit these guidelines may be chosen from outside or inside your own department, or from another Certificate program; and, assuming the other program allows it, such courses may count for both programs. Electives may also include any of the DGS core courses not taken as required courses in the DGS Certificate. In addition, in some cases students may use one independent study as an elective, with prior approval from the DGS coordinating committee. Likewise, with prior approval, some Liaison Fellowship work may be counted toward coursework.
- All coursework must be completed with a Grade of B or better.
Reflective Capstone Project:
The spirit of the Capstone is to foster students’ self-understanding as engaged, evolving thinkers and listeners within communities of learning and alliance – rather than being a hurdle that proves competency. Students nearing completion of their other Certificate requirements will present their projects at a Certificate gathering.
The Capstone project offers an occasion for students to reflect on their Certificate learning and their related experience. The project should address how the Certificate has shaped their understanding of decolonial thought as well as of their disciplinary and degree projects; and it should draw on these reflections to look ahead, integrating both scholarly knowledge and larger life and career aspirations. Projects can be written, multi-media, or otherwise creative; yet in any case, the work entailed should be comparable to a carefully developed six-page reflective essay. To lay ground for the final Capstone project reflections, core courses will also include one or more short reflective exercises.
NOTE: The final Capstone project needs advance approval by a certificate advisor.
Evidence of Multi-lingual Awareness
Given the importance of languages to both liberatory/decolonial and hegemonic/colonial projects, this Certificate also requires either a lived experience of multi-lingualism or evidence of significant engagement with the politics of language in coursework. Languages can include creole, indigenous, and ancient languages; oral-only and written-only languages; or any of the other thousands of languages in the world.
Certificate students will need to show evidence of either of the following: knowledge of a language other than English (spoken or written); or coursework treating the political-epistemological implications of different language worlds and hierarchies, involving attention to more than one language. For the former, students will be asked to provide a short written account of their multiple language knowledge; and for the latter, students will be asked to provide course syllabi and sample coursework showing evidence of their engagement with the politics of languages. Students who do not speak or write in multiple languages, and have not yet had an opportunity to take a course that significantly engages with the politics of language should reach out to a DGS Coordinating Committee member to discuss options for fulfilling this requirement.