Wheaton College Norton, Massachusetts
Wheaton College
Courses of Instruction


Connections 23016. Race as a Social Construct

The courses in this connection have the common theme of the origins and consequences of dividing humans into categories based upon morphological characteristics. In “Africans on Africa,” students will explore the attitudes and opinions of the diverse peoples of Africa for a much more complex point of view on what it means to be African or African American. The course begins with the birth of humans and the migration of these first humans to other environs; it concludes that we are all genetic cousins to one another; and what are assumed to be “racial” differences are no more than physical adaptations to different environments. In “Genetics,” students will study the complex pathways by which melanin pigments are formed. A major conclusion will be an appreciation for skin tones as a continuum of shades rather than as discrete and classifiable “racial” characteristics. In “Multicultural Psychology” students will study human thinking, feeling, and behaving as it occurs when people from different cultural (i.e., ability, age, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation) backgrounds encounter each other. The course covers topics such as cultural identity development, acculturation, microaggressions, isms, and multicultural competence.

This connection may be completed as a two- or three-way connection. A two-way connection must link courses from at least two different areas. A three-way connection can link three courses from three different areas.

HIST 143 Africans on Africa: A Survey

Natural Sciences
BIO 211 Genetics

Social Sciences
PSY 251 Multicultural Psychology