Over the past two years, universities across the country have scaled back or consolidated liberal arts programs that focus on ethnic and gender-based identity studies. Since taking office last January, the Trump administration has signed several executive orders to combat diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at institutions and organizations across the country, including in higher education.
At Brown, students interested in pursuing careers related to DEI already face a unique uncertainty in a job market that is already concerning. The Herald spoke to three students in fields of study which have been affected by anti-DEI pushback over the past two years.
To Anthony Bogues, professor of humanities and African studies and the inaugural director of the Simmons Center, part of the challenge lies in viewing entire fields of study as directly related to or about DEI. Bogues says this inadequately represents their focus and mission. “All of this is about the study of the human experience,” he said.
“One of the responsibilities of a university is to understand and to study the wide gamut of human experiences,” he added. Now, he said that responsibility is “under stress.”
The perception that these fields are somehow intrinsically tied to the now-under-attack ideas of DEI has fostered a sense of fear among students.
After spending her first year at Emerson College, Charlotte Brandman ’27 transferred to Brown with an interest in studying gender and sexuality studies. Under the GNSS concentration, she studies “legal theory and history and policy from this really critical queer perspective,” she said.
When the Trump administration first targeted Brown, freezing millions of dollars in federal funding, Brandman said she “was really concerned.”
“I just remember thinking if there’s a major to go first, it’s going to be mine,” she said. Even though undergraduates in the department have not seen any tangible changes yet, Brandman still feels a general “anxiety in the department.”
Brandman said that this mainly stems from a general shift towards conservatism that has impacted “any progress we’ve made in making the world a safe space for queer and trans bodies.”
“We are kind of watching our rights evolve as we try to research them,” she added.
The Trump administration has targeted transgender rights through various executive orders and legal challenges. As part of Brown’s July 2025 agreement with the federal government to restore funding, the University pledged to align with NCAA rules for the participation of transgender athletes in campus sports, which permit only students assigned female at birth to play in women’s sports.
Brandman plans on eventually going into public service. She said she has noticed a “job anxiety” within GNSS because studying gender and sexuality studies has become “a political statement.” She said that listing GNSS on her resume could “be used against (her) in the job search.”
Skyler Recel-Chang ’27, who studies neuroscience and critical Native American and Indigenous studies, wrote in an email to The Herald that the current political climate has “severely impacted” course selection and research opportunities for CNAIS students and faculty.
The concentration was established through funding from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, a private foundation that offers grants to study the arts and humanities.
“It is difficult to imagine this type of support being repeated within the current political climate,” she wrote. “While I have had the privilege of taking many enriching courses across disciplines with CNAIS, it makes the scholarship difficult when this important work feels constantly delegitimized.”
Janelle Aponte ’27, who studies ethnic studies and sociology, said she feels “very lucky” and “privileged” to study ethnic studies at Brown, as the department has not been significantly impacted compared to other peer institutions.
But she added that despite this comfort, the reality is, she is studying a subject “that is literally under attack in this country.” While she described the Department of Ethnic Studies as “a system of support,” she has felt tangible effects of the administration’s policies in other areas.
Like Brandman, Aponte is pre-law, and she is currently in the process of applying to law school. She said that she questions what makes her “hireable” during a period of time when her fields of study are “not something that is popular right now.”
“Even though at Brown it might feel like a sense of normal, there’s a whole world outside of it where that’s not the case,” she added. “Those programs can exist here at Brown, but if they don’t exist anywhere else, where are we going with it?”
Bogues said that the departmental reductions across the nation is “creating a ground for lack of understanding between human beings.”
Bogues said he has been assured by the University administration that a consolidation or reduction of the Africana Studies department will not happen at Brown.
But he added that he has noticed concern surrounding the job market in the graduate students he teaches. “I think that’s a valid concern,” he said, adding that the job market for Africana studies concentrators “is not as robust as it was 10 years ago.”
Still, he emphasized that Brown is “one of the (best and) most important universities in the United States.”
“I would say to (students), you take advantage of what is available for you to understand the world,” Bogues added.
Rachel Wicker is a senior staff writer covering affinity and identity. She is from Athens, Georgia and plans on concentrating in English on the nonfiction track and International and Public Affairs. Outside of writing, she enjoys reading books of any genre and doing yoga.
