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Ethnic Studies 101 (Au-Chapman Fall 2024)

Tips and tricks on navigating the auto-ethnography project, in which students will learn more about themselves and their family. Specifically, student's will explore their family's race/ethnicity and the challenges they've overcome to be in the United St

From the SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan and Human Development

From the Immigration and Migration: In Context

Investigating Your Heritage

Step One: Investigate Your Heritage

Get a notebook.

Begin by writing down everything you know (or think you know) about your familial origins. Whether you have specific dates and details, or merely rumors to work with...write it down.

Next, ask questions of everyone available to you. Family, if they are available to you. What a wonderful opportunity to call a grandparent or connect with a cousin on social media. Friends of family can also be a good resource.

Sometimes family origins -- family stories -- are shared often and with reverence. Sometimes they aren't, and you will need to dig to uncover information.

Step Two: Preliminary Reading to Build Knowledge

As you gather clues about your family background, engage in some informal reading to learn more about your ethnic history. This is still too early in the process to worry about finding your sources. Instead, focus on getting a handle on the "big picture" of your family's ethnic story. Why did "your people" (or the ancestors of "your people") first come to the United States? What did they encounter when they arrived? How did that shape them? Is it still shaping them? How?