United States Air Force Academy

Go to home page
integrate, adapt, and innovate to meet future challenges

Diversity & Inclusion Studies (Minor)

The Air Gardens at the U.S. Air Force Academy overlooking the Terrazzo.

The U.S. Air Force Academy must develop leaders who understand diversity and inclusion and can employ that knowledge to attract, recruit, retain, and leverage the diverse talent needed to enable the success of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force.

Diversity of thought (enabled by Airmen with unique backgrounds, cultures, demographics, identities, experiences, etc.) is the engine that drives our Air Force and Space Force’s ability to integrate, adapt, and innovate to meet future challenges. In order to unleash the full potential of diversity of thought, the Academy must cultivate leaders who not only understand and recognize the importance of diversity, but who actively create inclusive environments that leverage this diversity toward mission success. As such, the interdisciplinary Diversity and Inclusion Studies Minor program is designed to:

  1. Integrate the interdisciplinary study of diversity and inclusion into the Academy curriculum
  2. Prepare cadets to lead inclusively within a diverse organization, act responsibly in a diverse society, and meet cross-cultural challenges in a diverse world; and
  3. Develop respect for human dignity across a wide range of cultures and societies enabling the effective and ethical execution of military operations’

Student Learning Objectives (SLOs): Cadets who complete the Diversity and Inclusion Minor will be able to:

  1. Assess how historical, cultural, social, economic, literary, and/or political developments that have shaped one’s own identity compared to events and contexts that differentially shape another’s identity.
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of difference and empathy for others through perspective- taking, accounting for structural (macro) as well as interactional (micro) contexts that affect an individual’s perceptions, attitudes, values, and behaviors.
  3. Analyze, synthesize, and apply a broad range of theories of, and methodologies for, the critical study of diversity and inclusion, including how diversity and inclusion change in varied historical and social contexts.
  4. Identify and critically assess explanations for construction of specific categories/groups such as sex/gender; race/ethnicity/nation; socio-economic class; religious affiliation; age; (dis)ability; sexual orientation; and cultures. Critically analyze the intersectional relation between constructed groups and access to different kinds of power and important individual, social, and political goods.
Course Requirements

The Diversity and Inclusion Studies Minor requires a minimum of five classes (15 credit hours). The minor can be taken regardless of your academic major. As an interdisciplinary minor, no more than nine semester hours may come from the same department. However, individual courses required in multiple majors, or in a major and a minor, count for both, but cadets must meet all requirements for multiple majors and any minor(s).The Diversity and Inclusion Studies Minor requires a minimum of five classes (15 credit hours). The minor can be taken regardless of your academic major. As an interdisciplinary minor, no more than nine semester hours may come from the same department. However, individual courses required in multiple majors, or in a major and a minor, count for both, but cadets must meet all requirements for multiple majors and any minor(s).

1. Required foundational course
Beh Sci 360 Sociology
[Note: Beh Sci 360 is an advanced core option course and can potentially “double count” to fulfill both a core requirement and the foundational requirement of this minor, depending on your major.]
2. Two Humanities courses from the following
English 355 Literature, Language, and Race/Ethnicity
English 360 Literature, Language, and Gender/Sexuality
English 365 Literature, Language, and Class
History 364 Gender and Sexuality in History
History 366 Race, Nationalism, and Ethnicity in History
Hum 430 The Holocaust
Philos 395 Philosophy of Law
Philos 401 Comparative Religion
3. Two Social Science courses from the following
Beh Sci 362 Class, Race, and Ethnicity in Society
Beh Sci 364 Gender, Sexuality, and Society
Econ 422 Labor Economics
Geo 250 Human Geography: A Global Cultural Awareness
Geo 412 World Cultural Geography
Mgt 345 Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Pol Sci 421 International Security: Political Violence and Terrorism
Pol Sci 423 Genocide and Mass Atrocity
Pol Sci 425 Diversity and Security

Courses not listed above that meet significant SLOs for the minor may be considered for substitution for any of the Social Sciences or Humanities courses listed above. To request a course substitute, advisors must submit an academic waiver request to the minor’s advisor in charge, which will include a description of the SLOs that are met and assessed by the course, as well as a copy of the course syllabus.

CONTACT US

DFBL Advisor-in-Charge
(719) 333-2514