BA Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at University of Chicago

Programme overview

Coursework in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity enables students to rigorously study race, diaspora, and indigeneity — categories that constitute human identity through claims of particularity, origins and continuity, and mobility and dispersal, in order to enact power within the modern world. These meanings can be seen in how unequal status, exploited and extracted condition, and disproportionate violence and harm inform the histories of peoples comprising these categories. Yet they are also evident in the ingenious, interse cting identities and affinities enacted by those sam

Faculty: The College | Department: Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity | Study mode: full-time | Intake: Autumn | Location: Chicago, IL, United States

What you will study

The major requires 13 courses: three introductory critical concepts courses, four courses distributed across the foundational categories, four RDIN electives, and two courses related to the thesis/capstone project. Students opting to not complete a BA thesis or capstone project must replace the two courses related to the thesis/capstone project with two RDIN electives.

Official programme page

Application information

Entry requirements

Admission is to the College, not to the major (university-level requirement): first-year applicants apply through the Common Application or Apply Coalition with the UChicago supplement essays and submit the secondary school report and transcript, two teacher evaluations and a mid-year report; testing follows the University's No Harm Testing Policy. Majors are declared after enrolment and must satisfy the College general education Core plus the major requirements listed in the catalogue.

USD 75,960 a year (2026-27). College tuition for the 2026-27 academic year (cost of attendance table); excludes student services fee, U-Pass fee, class fee, housing, food and books. Source

First-year admission is offered for entrance in the Autumn Quarter only (except prospective students-at-large).

First-year application plans (as published for the 2025-26 cycle): Early Decision I and Early Action deadline 3 November 2025; Early Decision II and Regular Decision deadline 5 January 2026. Applications are accepted through the Common Application and Apply Coalition, Powered by Scoir. An application fee or automatic fee waiver is required, SAT/ACT scores are covered by the No Harm Testing Policy.

Apply through the official page: https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/application/

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