Loading

Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society 2020-21 annual newsletter

TIP: Viewing by phone? Switch to landscape (horizontal) mode to optimally view images.

A Message from the Director

Dina Okamoto

August 2021

Dear CRRES Friends and Colleagues,

We write to you after the close of a particularly tumultuous year. When we published last year’s newsletter, we were just beginning to see widespread protests against police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter. Alongside a sudden national interest in addressing racism, we also witnessed the continued normalization of white supremacy during the storming of the Capitol and in the proliferation of hate incidents directed at Asian Americans, including mass shootings in Atlanta and Indianapolis. These events were not isolated incidents, but part of a larger history of race and racism in the U.S. More than ever, we see an urgent need for research on race and ethnicity, paired with a strong commitment to racial justice.

CRRES responded to this need with “Confronting Racism,” a seven-week virtual series in collaboration with College of Arts and Humanities Institute and the IU Arts and Humanities Council. This series brought together experts of race and ethnicity – from CRRES and across the country – to unpack the histories and social realities of race, racism, and anti-Blackness, as well as protest, resistance, and efforts for social change. Well-attended by both the IU community and general public, these panels set the stage for the work CRRES would continue to do in the 2020-21 academic year.

To address the increased national interest in understanding race and reduce the harm of misinformation, CRRES regularly compiled and curated research-based resources on topics including racial disparities during COVID-19 and anti-Asian racism. CRRES scholars consistently responded to calls for their expertise on race and participated in a range of service activities to educate the university community and larger public about histories and experiences of race and racism. And demonstrating the strength of our research community, several CRRES affiliates secured funding for innovative research projects through IU’s new Racial Justice Fund. As these projects continue, we look forward to the important insights their research will yield, on core issues ranging from environmental justice to racial disparities in resource accessibility.

The past year also challenged us to continue our research and programming in physical isolation from one another. At CRRES, we too grappled with the at-times rocky transition to virtual events, working to provide inviting community spaces balanced with the need to protect our speakers and audiences from potential hate incidents. Nonetheless, we continued our tradition of robust programming and campus engagement through a virtual Speaker Series, modified Coffee Hours, and a month-long Research Symposium, which showcased the incredible research being done by graduate student researchers and participants of this year’s Undergraduate Research Program.

As we enter our 10th year as a center on campus and our 4th year as part of the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, CRRES continues to be a vibrant space, now with 56 faculty affiliates, 4 postdoctoral scholars, and 33 graduate student affiliates from departments and schools across campus. The Postdoctoral Scholars Program also remains a key part of the Center, as CRRES provides an interdisciplinary environment that centers new scholarship on race and ethnicity and dedicated mentorship to a new generation of scholars. We invite you to read this newsletter to see a slice of what the Center and our affiliates have accomplished this year.

Moving forward, CRRES is committed to continuing the work of amplifying research on race and ethnicity, building interdisciplinary networks and community, and serving as a research resource. As always, we welcome collaborations and suggestions for advancing research on race and ethnicity and developing programming that uplifts our communities. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at crres@indiana.edu.

Dina Okamoto, CRRES Director

Responding to the Pandemic

Maintaining a Scholarly Community

As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill, CRRES pushed forward virtually, by continuing to research and educate on campus and beyond.

In Summer 2020, CRRES launched a website page dedicated to resources highlighting racial disparities statistics and other research on COVID-19 as well as anti-racism. CRRES also hosted the Confronting Racism series, where our esteemed guest panelists held weekly conversations on how racism plays a role in urban geographies, protests, technology, and global systems.

Through 2021, CRRES continues to build its digital archive efforts for the protest signs and other objects symbolizing support for the Black Lives Matter Movement during historic protests and other historical objects shared by community members, in collaboration with other institutional partners for the History Harvest.

June 30, 2020 - August 11, 2020
Confronting Racism: Conversations on Systemic Racism and Protest

The highly visible, viral, and vicious nature of racism in 2020 sparked prolonged protests and left many wondering how we could move forward. For scholars of race and racism in the US, this moment was both exhausting and exhilarating. We have long been aware of how racism is entrenched in American histories and remains equally pervasive in the modern day. Yet the recent surge of activism against systemic racism suggests renewed possibilities for change.

Between June 30 and August 11, CRRES partnered with the Arts and Humanities Council and the College of Arts and Humanities Institute to produce Confronting Racism, a weekly panel discussion with experts on race and racism in the US and beyond.

Watch videos of the Confronting Racism Panels

June 30, 2020
Urban Geographies of Violence and Protest
  • Rasul Mowatt, Indiana University; Professor, School of Public Health; Departments of American Studies and Geography
  • Candace Miller, Indiana University; Visiting Assistant Professor, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs; Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society
  • Rebecca S. Wingo, University of Cincinnati; Assistant Professor, Director of Public History

Panelists discussed how policy choices around infrastructure, housing, and business enact white supremacist violence in order to control urban Black residents. Looking at case studies from Detroit, Indianapolis, and St. Paul, the panelists argued that urban policies are often rooted in broader histories of segregation and discrimination that continue into the present, often dressed up in the "neutral" language of city planning. At the same time, these communities have developed their own strategies and tools of resistance, which include reimagining their neighborhoods as vibrant spaces to meet the needs of residents rather than as sites of abandonment or threat.

The panel was moderated by Michelle Moyd and Jelani Ince.

July 7, 2020
Policing
  • Jeannine Bell, Indiana University; Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law; Maurer School of Law
  • Khalil Muhammad, Harvard University; Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies
  • Simon Balto, University of Iowa; Assistant Professor, African American History

Modern policing in the U.S. is a method of controlling people through violence justified by discourses of criminality. This attitude grows out of our nation's historical relationship to violence, segregation, and enslavement. The panelists discussed the widespread and false presumption of Black criminality, and the possibilities of comprehensive police reform. They noted that policing is often deployed to curb violence, despite the fact that there is little empirical evidence to support this idea. In the end, changing policing would require a fundamental restructuring of the entire system.

The panel was moderated by Michelle Moyd.

July 14, 2020
Protest and Change
  • Dr. Stephanie Huezo, Fordham University; Assistant Professor
  • Dr. Matthew Countryman, University of Michigan; Associate Professor, Department of American Culture and Department of History; Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
  • Dr. Cristal Chanelle Truscott, Northwestern School of Communication; Associate Professor, Department of Performance Studies, Theatre
  • Dr. Maisha Wester, Indiana University; Associate Professor, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and Department of American Studies

Panelists provided important context for the protests and movements for social change that gained increased attention during 2020. These movements were not new but were tied to histories of activism that span time and space. With a sense of history and an eye to the future, the panelists provided insights on how protest can be a productive tool for social change. They noted that protest can take very different forms and is a public display of the everyday struggle against policies and practices that sustain racial inequalities.

The panel was moderated by Dina Okamoto and Vanessa Cruz-Nichols.

July 21, 2020
Media, Technology, & Social Media
  • Ryan Comfort, Indiana University; Ph.D. Student and Associate Instructor, Media School
  • Danielle Kilgo, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; John & Elizabeth Bates Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity, and Equality, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication
  • Wendy Chun, Simon Fraser University; Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media, School of Communication
  • Marissa Moorman, Indiana University; Professor, Department of History

Media and technologies play powerful roles in the legitimization, reach, and sustainability of social movements. In this session, panelists discussed how technologies can support and expand what is possible in a movement, even as technologies heralded as color-blind may in fact perpetuate racism. Turning to the media, the conversation drew parallels between the uneven and inaccurate coverage of anti-racist protest and indigenous peoples, which raise challenges for protestors and social movements, and reveal the ways in which technologies and media can hinder social change.

The panel was moderated by Janae Cummings

July 28, 2020
Social Justice and Incarceration
  • Michael Harriot, The Root
  • Leah Derray, Indy10 Black Lives Matter
  • Kyra Harvey, Indy10 Black Lives Matter
  • Clint Smith, Emerson Fellow, New America

The Social Justice and Incarceration panel expanded definitions of “expert” beyond the walls of academic institutions to host prominent voices in journalism, poetry, and activism. This powerful panel featured Michael Harriot, Senior Writer at The Root; Clint Smith, acclaimed poet and writer at the Atlantic; and activists Leah Derray and Kyra Harvey from the Indianapolis chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Each panelist began with an introduction and brief discussion of incarceration. Clint Smith discussed his work around prison education, which focuses on people were sentenced to life without parole as children. However, Smith was careful to note that education cannot be the sole approach, emphasizing the necessity to "pull back the power of the carceral state." Michael Harriot began by offering straightforward observations: 1) We know prisons don't work and 2) Prisons and incarceration are not racist, but are white supremacist systems. He defined white supremacy as an entire system that advantages whites.

"As long as we continue to let systems be, without trying to fix them, we are tacitly giving approval to that system." - Michael Harriot

Local Indiana activists Leah Derray and Kyra Harvey discussed the work they do and their motivations for activism. Derray co-founded BLM Indy shortly after the death of Michael Brown. Harvey is also involved with The Bail Project, an organization aimed at reducing the number of individuals left imprisoned simply because they cannot afford the high costs of cash bail. Both Derray and Harvey are also working to call attention to the issue of housing, and noted the lack of state-funded shelters available in Indianapolis.

August 4, 2020
Indigenous Perspectives
  • Liza Black, Indiana University; Assistant Professor, Department of History; Assistant Professor, Native American and Indigenous Studies Program
  • Julie L. Reed, Penn State University; Associate Professor of American Indian and American History
  • Joseph M. Pierce, Stony Brook University; Associate Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature
  • Chief Ben Barnes, Vice Chairman and Second Chief of The Shawnee Tribe in Miami, Oklahoma

This panel was part of an effort for the purposeful inclusion of Indigenous voices. Panelists discussed how Native and Black communities overlap, navigating racism and colonialism, and fighting for rights, sovereignty, and self-governance. Panelists discussed the pervasiveness of white supremacy and its role in erasing languages, names, and futures, and described language preservation and revival as the new activism. They also noted the intertwined nature of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx experiences and resistance, and called for continued efforts to create better futures together.

The panel was moderated by Nicky Belle.

August 11, 2020
Global Solidarities
  • Tiffany Florvil, University of New Mexico; Assistant Professor, Department of History
  • Tiffany Gill, University of Delaware; Associate Professor of Black American Studies and History; Cochran Scholar
  • Kevin Brown, Indiana University; Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law
  • Sydney-Paige Patterson, Indiana University; PhD Candidate, Department of History; African Diasporic History; India Studies

We concluded the Confronting Racism series by looking beyond the US, featuring scholars who consider racial inequalities and solidarities around the globe. Panelists discussed the connections between African American and Dalit activism in India, the Black German activist movement, and the experiences of Black international travelers. The audience learned more about how Black movements in the US influenced later social movements around the world, and about Derrick Bell’s “racial realism,” which acknowledges racism as an undeniable fact of African American life.

The panel was moderated Deborah Cohn.

Crisis: Interning Through Protests and a Pandemic

A Few Words From Alicia Harmon, CRRES Social Media Intern, 2019-20

June 2020

When I began my internship with CRRES in the early fall, I could not have anticipated all that would happen by the end of the spring semester and into the summertime. I did not know I would learn so much about social movements and the influence of social media on people in light of the pandemic and the protests for Black Lives.

When the campus shut down, my work changed. There were no more posters to make for the Speaker Series and other events since all in-person gatherings were cancelled as we were forced to stay inside and quarantine. Whereas I initially ran just our Twitter and Facebook, I also began to run our Instagram page. Throughout most of May, our social media efforts generally focused on COVID, our affiliates' work related to it, and virtual events. We helped spread information about relief resources and information about the pandemic’s effects, especially the racial inequalities.

Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed February 23rd, was among the names catching fire before George Floyd’s death. Very early into the year, there was an unrest that was becoming undeniable and only increasing. Our social media focused more on police brutality, anti-blackness, and violence as possibilities for substantial change expanded.

The world could no longer stay inside when George Floyd was murdered on May 25th. Fear, anxiety, hurt, anger, grief, and so many other feelings overwhelmed us, and there were protests in the Minneapolis streets that spread throughout the US with a speed and on a scale we hadn’t quite seen before. Our closest reference were the protests of 1968 and others that characterized the Civil Rights Movement/Black Power Movement.

There were a lot of feelings I was dealing with at the time. Being uprooted due to COVID wasn’t ideal. The pandemic remains an underlying stress, especially considering the economic difficulties my mother has always faced, my father’s asthma, and fear of how healthcare systems and workers often fail Black people. Then there is a social movement occurring not in a textbook, article, autobiography, or documentary but right in front of everyone. It has been galvanizing. People were, and are, talking and yelling and joining together and fighting and saying that enough is enough, that we will breathe, that we will not die for you.

And what was I doing? I kept asking myself this and am still asking. I donated to organizations I believed were doing the work, signed petitions, spread awareness on my personal and CRRES social media, kept up on reading, and attended protests when I could. But I felt I wasn’t doing enough. I was not part of any organizing force where I could contribute to the running of events, protests, or programs. My family did not want me to go out protesting, though they voiced this knowing I probably would go, and I did. I never craved more to be among black people fighting and healing, especially as I was feeling so grieved, sorrowful, angry, inept, proud, and intense. Just intense.

My work with CRRES had a new importance since social media was informing the movement in amazing and dangerous ways. I had to ensure CRRES was a strong, active, meaningful voice that gave power to others. I took this seriously, and I was so grateful to work with people that took it so seriously. I appreciate all the events, all the work I got to read, and the ways I got to see how social media can connect the minds of people. I appreciate having something to give my focus when my mind was scattered due to the pandemic and give my energy when I was so hurt and motivated by so much that was happening, that has long been happening.

As I’m writing this, I’m about a week from the end of my internship with CRRES and a new start as a research assistant with a former CRRES postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Tennisha Riley. While I’m at IU, I hope to stay connected to the organization through the people, the events, the work, and, of course, social media as I continue along this path that my work with CRRES has helped to pave.

Storefront in Bloomington, IN

SPEAKER SERIES

Our Speaker Series, in collaboration with other university departments and centers, invites scholars and artists to present their work in a lively public forum. These events contribute to IUB's intellectual climate and relevant campus conversations on race and ethnicity.

Oscar Patrón, CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor in Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs, School of Education, Indiana University
Theorizing Intersectional (Race)silience among Gay Latino Male Collegians

Dr. Oscar Patrón talked about his qualitative study examining processes of resilience that gay Latino men in college undergo as it relates to social identities that are most salient to them. Patrón discussed how he accounted for the role and manifestation of systems of oppression that underlie the adversity encountered by Latino men. In doing so, Patrón shared how his work expands current theoretical underpinnings of a resilience framework, ultimately proposing intersectional (race)silience as a more critical and holistic approach.

Freda Fair, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, Indiana University
Ruth Ellis and the Atmosphere of Black Queer Longevity

Dr. Freda Fair examined the documentary Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (1999) by Yvonne Welbon, which centered on the life of African American lesbian centenarian Ruth Ellis. In the film, Ellis asserts that cultivating “atmosphere” interpersonally in daily life engenders longevity. Fair examined Ellis’ formulation of black queer atmosphere as a site of imagining that advances the livability of racialized sexual difference.

Drawing on queer of color critique, black gender and sexuality studies, and visual cultural studies, Fair argued that Living with Pride puts forth a model of longevity that is personally and collectively grounded in queer of color resistant social practice that troubles public health life expectancy discourses. Fair closely considered Ellis’ assertion in the film that she “was never in—What you call it? . . . Closet.” Although Ellis explicitly disavows “the closet," in the film and commonly she is often referred to as “out.” Fair engaged the ways in which both “out” and “never in” render Ellis’ living legible within LGBTQ cultural politics.

Christine Peralta, CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Indiana University
Julita Sotejo and the Decolonial Promise of Filipino Nursing, 1941-1974

Dr. Christine Peralta gave a talk on Julita Sotejo, a Filipina nurse who was studying abroad in the U.S. and Canada when World War II broke out in the Philippines. Unable to return home, she spent the next four years in North America creating a new and responsive training program for nurses in the Philippines, which she hoped would replace the American training model established when the U.S. colonized the Philippines in 1898.

Since the 1960’s, 150,000 Filipino nurses have migrated to the U.S, while at the same time the Philippines has had a labor shortage of 20,000 nurses. Although Filipino migrant nurses fill health shortages in the U.S., most citizens in their home country lack access to healthcare. This talk recovered Sotejo’s original purpose, which was to decolonize Filipino nursing and create a system that would make healthcare more accessible for all Filipinos.

Iván Chaar-López, Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Alien Files: The Green Card as Racial Control

Dr. Ivan Chaar-López examined how discourses of enmity were embedded in technologies of control such as the Green Card and its subsequent automation in the 1970s.

Chaar-López argued that at a time when elected officials and policy makers insist on marking non-White populations as dangerous threats to the nation, it was fundamental that we interrogate the long, historical relationship between discourses of enmity and its impact on the lives of these stigmatized populations. Their democratic participation is shaped by the persistent push to monitor and control their public presence. Chaar-López discussed how discourses of enmity were embedded in technologies of control such as the Green Card and its subsequent automation in the 1970s. Scrutinizing the interactions between politics, technology, and immigration helps us understand how migrant populations are allowed to participate, or not, in public life.

Candace Miller, CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
Race, Entrepreneurship, and Revitalization: How Local Governments Drive Up the Costs of Neighborhood Change

Dr. Candace Miller discussed how gentrification-driven redevelopment impacts local small businesses by driving increases in rents, evictions, seizures of buildings through eminent domain, and competition for commercial space. While these conditions present challenges for many small business owners, they are particularly detrimental for vulnerable groups. Drawing on 89 in-depth interviews with business owners and 22 months of ethnographic observation in Detroit, Michigan, Miller examined how the costs of contemporary redevelopment efforts are experienced across Black and white business owners. Miller found that, in addition to rising rents and an unstable consumer base, business owners in neighborhoods undergoing significant capital investment are often forced to navigate higher and more frequent fees associated with licenses, permits, and inspections.

Miller's results suggested that gentrification-driven redevelopment has far-reaching impacts and the potential to shape the fates of Black business owners who are forced to contend with additional financial costs that escalate their sense of precarity.

Shauna M. Cooper, Director of Diversity Initiatives, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Parenting and Well-Being among Black Fathers: Understanding Practices, Processes and Impacts

Dr. Shauna M. Cooper situated research on Black fathers and families within the broader socio-historical context. She highlighted critical contributions and remaining gaps in parenting-related studies with Black fathers and families. After providing a broader context for understanding and assessing research contributions, Cooper identified key contextual and cultural factors that shape Black fathers’ parenting practices and processes as well as implications for child and broader family outcomes. Her talk concluded with a brief discussion of key considerations for engagement and translational research.

Terri Francis, Director of Black Film Center/Archive and Associate Professor, The Media School, Indiana University
Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism

The conversation with Drs. Terri Francis and Ross Gay focused on Francis' new book Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism. Josephine Baker, the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, was both liberated and delightfully undignified, playfully vacillating between allure and colonialist stereotyping.

Nicknamed the "Black Venus," "Black Pearl," and "Creole Goddess," Baker blended the sensual and the comedic when taking 1920s Europe by storm. Back home in the U.S., Baker's film career brought hope to the Black press that a new cinema centered on Black glamour would come to fruition. In Josephine Baker's Cinematic Prism, Terri Francis examined how Baker fashioned her celebrity through cinematic reflexivity, an authorial strategy in which she placed herself, her persona, and her character into visual dialogue. Francis contended that though Baker was an African American actress who lived and worked in France exclusively with a white film company alongside white co-stars, writers, and directors, she held monumental significance for African American cinema as the first truly global Black woman film star.

WORKSHOPS & OTHER CO-SPONSORED EVENTS

Beyond our Speaker Series, we held additional events in collaboration with other university units. Below are just a few of our activities this past year:

Whose Streets?
Documentary Directed by Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis

This powerful, raw documentary dove into 2014 Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the police shooting of Michael Brown. This documentary combined professional footage, news clips, interviews, and cell phone videos to present the birth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The film was a part of the College of Arts and Sciences' Themester, which explored the theme of "Democracy." A panel discussion after the film featured a mix of graduate students and faculty, including CRRES affiliates Rasul Mowatt and Micol Seigel.

This event was co-sponsored by IU Cinema, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Research on Race & Ethnicity in Society.

The Civil Rights Movement and Grassroots Democracy: A Discussion with Charles E. Cobb

Fifty-six years ago, a small group of young people risked their lives to bring democracy and freedom to a totalitarian state. The state was Mississippi. The young people were activists in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Former SNCC freedom fighter, founder of the 1964 Freedom School movement in Mississippi, educator, and writer Charlie Cobb engaged in a discussion with students about the connections between grassroots organizing for democracy in the South and its implications for today.

How do memories of the fight for democracy shape the ongoing battle for racial and social justice in our own times? What lessons do the mobilization of young people on behalf of democracy and anti-racism during the 1960s hold for today’s activists? What is the legacy of SNCC?

Co-Sponsors: Department of History, Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Department of American Studies, School of Education, Residential Programs and Services, Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society, Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center, Global Living Learning Center, the Political and Civic Engagement Program (PACE) and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Meet Cathy Park Hong, Author of “Minor Feelings”
Dina Okamoto (left) and Cathy Park Hong (right)

CRRES Director Dr. Dina Okamoto moderated a discussion with Cathy Park Hong, an award-winning poet, the poetry editor of the New Republic, and a professor in the MFA program in poetry at Rutgers University. Professor Hong talked about her recent book, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, which addresses race and racial identity, the positionality of Asian Americans within the U.S. racial hierarchy, and the "minor feelings" and indignities that come with being Asian American.

Read the transcript to the event here and watch the recording here.

Co-sponsors: IU Asian Culture Center, IU Asian American Studies Program, Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center at Purdue University, and Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois, and Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.

Photo by Joe Henson
Race, Caste, and Inequality: A Conversation with Isabel Wilkerson

In February 2021, Isabel Wilkerson, acclaimed author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, led a conversation on race in America with an international perspective. She was joined by J. Kameron Carter, a specialist on race and religion in the United States, and Charu Gupta, a leading scholar in India on caste discrimination and gender. Together they explored how widening the analysis of racial discrimination in the U.S. through comparison with other forms of prejudice can provide new insights in the struggle for racial justice, and considered the analytical challenges of that comparative perspective.

This event was hosted by the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs and the IU India Gateway in New Delhi, with additional sponsorship from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multi-Cultural Affairs, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.

A Follow-up Conversation

Following the discussion with Wilkerson, three Indiana University graduate students discussed the benefits and limitations of applying a caste framework to racial discrimination in the United States, contributing insights from their own research on race and racism.

This discussion featured CRRES Student Affiliates Sydney-Paige Patterson (History) and Kennedi Johnson (Folklore and Ethnomusicology), and Kasha Appleton (History).

Julie Sze, Professor of American Studies and Founding Director of the Environmental Justice Project, University of California, Davis
Hoosier Lifelines Speaker Series: Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger

In March 2021, Dr. Julie Sze led a discussion on the recent developments in the political and environmental spheres mean for the environmental justice movement. We are living in a precarious environmental and political moment. In the United States and in the world, environmental injustices have manifested across racial and class divides in devastatingly disproportionate ways. Dr. Sze addressed the following questions: What does this moment of danger mean for the environment and for justice? What can we learn from environmental justice struggles?

The event was hosted by the Environmental Resilience Institute and co-sponsored by the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society, the IU Department of History, and the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute.

CRRES welcomed all community members to attend our virtual sessions, even four legged ones!

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM (URP)

The Undergraduate Research Program provides undergraduates with the opportunity to conduct research related to race and ethnicity under the mentorship of a faculty member or postdoc. Research experiences include coding texts and visual media, examining archival documents, analyzing datasets, and preparing experimental and audit studies. In addition to research training, students attend professional development workshops on topics such as creating a research poster, writing abstracts, and applying to graduate school and fellowships.

Projects & Pairings

Check out the research posters designed by URP students.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Black Lives Matter Movement on Hiring Discrimination: A Natural Experiment - Professor Koji Chavez (Sociology) and Maria Martinez

An Ideological and Organizational Analysis of the Black Lives Matter Movement - Professor Fabio Rojas (Sociology) and Kia Heryadi

Adaptations and Augmentations: How Black-owned businesses in Detroit handled struggles - Professor Candace Miller (CRRES and the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs) and Jordan Plunkett

Loving and the Spectacle of Interrace - Professor Clark Barwick (Kelley School of Business) and Mofe Koya

Composing a Sustainable, Engaging, and Inclusive Performing Arts Organization - Professor Alisha L. Jones (Folklore and Ethnomusicology) and Paula Wilson

Insurgent Care: Reimagining the Health Work of Filipina Women Under Spanish and U.S. Colonial Rule, 1870-1948 - Professor Christine Peralta (History) and Lazarus Avila

Professor Oscar Patrón (Education) and Jayana Hammonds

See all 2020-21 projects

CRRES RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

In 2021, our annual spring research symposium took a new shape. Instead of two days packed with conference sessions, the “From Injustice to Just Futures” Symposium was broken into three shorter events spread across April.

During our April Coffee Hour, CRRES Director Dina Okamoto and Associate Director Michelle Moyd delivered a joint keynote. Two weeks later, on April 16th, ten graduate students presented highlights of their research and engaged in a community conversation about race and ethnicity research. Finally, on April 30th, CRRES Undergraduate Research Program participants presented on the work they had done with their faculty mentors.

“From Injustice to Just Futures” happened during a year transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic that forced an abrupt transition into living physically distant from others. Highly visible and viral deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd (and many since) sparked renewed nationwide protests against racial injustice. This movement was met with more racial terror: counter-protests, an attempted white supremacist coup on the Capitol, and continued state violence. This was compounded by anti-Asian xenophobia and hate crimes targeting Asian Americans that have suffused public life since the beginning of the pandemic. The Symposium presentations reflected on this context and its impact on race and ethnicity research.

Symposium Kick-Off: A Conversation with CRRES Leadership

During the April Coffee Hour, Dr. Dina Okamoto and Dr. Michelle Moyd delivered a joint Symposium Keynote focused on the changing face of research due to the personal and professional constraints that the past year has posed. Most scholars' research plans were at least partially derailed by the pandemic and the waves of racial violence across the US.

Dr. Dina G. Okamoto

Dr. Okamoto pointed out that these “research interruptions“ have raced, gendered, and intersectional implications that need to be studied in greater depth. They have led to increased anxiety around professional “productivity” particularly for scholars of race and ethnicity.

Dr. Michelle R. Moyd

These interruptions led to important transformations in our understanding of research as a living, social concept. Dr. Moyd observed: “While the racial justice scholarship I did last year is not legible to the university as ‘research,’ it was vitally important—perhaps the most important work I’ve done in my career because it felt urgent and responsive and collaborative—we had an audience that wanted this type of analysis that was timely and deeply researched.”

As a consequence, Dr. Okamoto and Dr. Moyd discussed turning to public-facing work that can address immediate social concerns more readily than the slow, time-intensive academic publication process. Public talks, the CRRES “Confronting Racism” series, and short-form writing provide important outlets that are both more accessible to a wider audience and more achievable for race and ethnicity researchers who are stretched thin.

Graduate student presenters gave 5-minute "lightning" presentations, summarizing their current research, particularly as it pertained to the current social and political context. The remainder of the session allowed for open discussion between panelists and audience members.

Our purpose with this format is two-fold and responds to the preferences expressed in a recent survey of our graduate student affiliates. First, these brief presentation times gave students the opportunity to share their work in a supportive, low-pressure environment. We encouraged projects in all stages of research, from those still in the planning stages to completed papers. Second, in a time when we are all isolated from one another, CRRES sought to provide spaces for connection and community. One aim of the research month sessions was to aid in building interdisciplinary networks and facilitate connections with others.

Letters To My Sisters & Brothers: Creating Just Futures For BIPOC Students In Academia - Nelson Zounlome, Counseling Psychology

"Conquistadors in Hard Hats": Racial Capitalism and Colonization in Quinceañera and The Madonnas of Echo Park - Chris Mendez, Department of English.

Voguing Against the State: Chicago, USA and Santiago, Chile - Daniel Runnels, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

(Lack of) Skin Tone Representation in Anatomical Genital Drawings in Human Sexuality Textbooks - Yael Rosenstock Gonzalez, School of Public Health.

"We All Carry Trauma": Unpacking Narratives of Diasporic Trauma and Self-Empowerment In the Desi Diaspora - Mallika Khanna, Media School

Do I Belong Here? Exploring Biracial/Multiracial and Bisexual Adults' Experiences with Community - Deana Williams, School of Public Health

News stories and Images of Immigrants Online: An Analysis of Digital-Native and Traditional News Websites of Different Political Orientations and What the Audience Recommends and Shares on Social Media - Umberto Famulari, Media School.

Cultivating Social Capital and Strengthening Ethnic Identity among Latinx Greek Members - Melissa Garcia, Department of Sociology.

The Elephant in the Room: The Impact of Racial identity on the Role Performance of Higher Education Instructors in the Classroom - Jasmine Davis-Randolph, Department of Sociology (and Alisha Kirchoff).

Denying Black Girlhood: Racialized Listening Practices in the Elementary Classroom - Kennedi Johnson, Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology.

Undergraduate Student Panel

Students who participated in the CRRES Undergraduate Research Program this year had the opportunity to participate in panel presentations and discuss their year-long collaborative research projects with IU faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences (Sociology, Folklore and Ethnomusicology), O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Kelley School of Business. Our Undergraduate Social Media Intern also made a guest appearance, sharing best practices learned after a year of public-facing communication on topics related to race and ethnicity!

GRANT AWARDEES

Each year, CRRES provides funding to support research for faculty and graduate students. This funding helps scholars across campus to continue to develop their research.

Congratulations to all recipients!

Graduate Student Research Grants
  • Jasmine Davis (Sociology), "Teaching Race: A Sociological Inquiry of Higher Ed Classrooms"
  • Shanalee Gallimore (Higher Education and Student Affairs), "I'm Not Your Superwoman: A Narrative Inquiry of Black Women in Graduate STEM Programs and Their Holistic Well-Being"
  • Melissa Garcia (Sociology), "The Latina-founded Sororities and Latino-founded Fraternities Project"
  • Monica Heilman (Sociology), "The Role of Whiteness in Multiracial Identity"
  • José Luis Suárez Morales (Spanish & Portuguese), "The Uses of Memory: Mediatization and Crisis in Post-Dictatorship Guatemala"
  • Sydney-Paige Patterson (History), "Between Home and City: Radical Private Space in the Black and the Dalit Panther Parties"
  • Anna Russian (Sociology), "The Meaning and Consequences of Gender Socialization Across Context and Over Time: Former Student-Athlete Experiences in Life After College Sport"
Faculty Research Grants
  • Alberto Ortega (O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs), "Biased Media, Racial Attitudes, and Perception of Police"
  • Tennisha Riley (Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education), "Resistive Transformation: A Youth Participatory Action Research Investigation to Elevate Black Student's Critical Consciousness of Learning Experiences"

AFFILIATE NEWS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Our CRRES Affiliates are highly accomplished scholars in their fields. Below we provide just a brief snapshot of their achievements during 2020-21.

Selected Publications
Placements & Awards

Postdoctoral Scholar Placements

  • Candace Miller, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology
  • Oscar Patrón, Indiana University, Assistant Professor in the School of Education
  • Christine Peralta, Amherst College, Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies

Selected Awards

  • Muna Adem (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate) won the PEO Scholars Award from the PEO Sisterhood.
  • Chinbo Chong (Political Science, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for her project titled "Fleeing or Flocking: Challenges to Asian American Collective Action in the Age of COVID-19 Pandemic." Dr. Chong also won American Political Science Association’s Race & Ethnic Politics Best Paper Award of 2020.
  • Ross Gay (English, Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate, Poet) won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award from PEN America for his book, Be Holding: A Poem.
  • Yael Rosenstock Gonzalez (School of Public Health, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate) along with colleagues Deana Williams and Dr. Debby Herbenick won a grant from the IU Racial Justice Research Fund to support their project titled “Racial/Skin Tone Anatomical Representation in Human Sexuality Textbooks.”
  • Pamela Hong (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate, Indiana University Graduate Scholars Fellow) won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to fund her project titled “Victim Framing: How Newspaper Articles Report Immigration Protest Events.”
  • Pamela Jackson (Sociology, Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate) and Dr. Christy Erving (IU PhD, 2014) won the North Central Sociological Association's Scholarly Achievement Award for their article “Race-Ethnicity, Social Roles, and Mental Health: A Research Update,” published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior. In addition, Dr. Jackson received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for the IU Social Empathy Lab. Dr. Jackson was also named Provost Professor and received the 2021 Tracy M. Sonneborn Award.
  • Kennedi Johnson (Ethnomusicology, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate) won the John H. Edwards Fellowship.
  • David Konisky (School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Associate Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for the project titled "Identifying Environmental Justice Communities in Indiana."
  • Jennifer C. Lee (Sociology, Associate Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate, Acting Director of the Asian American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences) won the inaugural Inclusive Excellence Award, created by the Bloomington Faculty Council's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
  • Sylvia Martinez (School of Education, Associate Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate), along with Dr. Vasti Torres and Dr. Ebelia Hernández, won the 2021 Book of the Year Award from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Her co-authored and now award-winning book is titled Understanding the LatinX Experience: Developmental and Contextual Influences.
  • Candace Miller (School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for her project titled "Racial Disparities among Small Businesses during Covid-19."
  • Michelle R. Moyd (History, Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor; CRRES Associate Director) won the College Arts and Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship for her project titled "Soldiering for Empire: Race, Labor, and Recruitment of Black Troops in Africa and the United States, 1865-1920." Dr. Moyd also received the the 2021 Building Bridges Award and Mellon Platform Indiana Studies grant.
  • Dina Okamoto (Sociology, Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Professor; CRRES Director) received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation for her research on the boundary rhetoric used by politicians to "other" immigrant populations as recorded in the U.S. Congressional Record from 1930 to 2020.
  • Oscar Patrón (School of Education, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for his project titled "Accessing Institutional Resources in Times of Uncertainty: Students of Color and staff Navigating Unknown Terrain."
  • Tennisha Riley (School of Education, Assistant Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was awarded a grant from the IU Racial Justice Fund for her project titled "Black Youth's Emotion Regulation Strategies in Response to Racial Discrimination Experiences - An Examination of Peer Support and Civic Engagement."
  • Fabio Rojas (Sociology, Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for his project titled "What is the Impact of Black Lives Matter on American Society?"
  • Daniel Runnels (Spanish and Portuguese, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate) received a College of Arts & Sciences Dissertation Research Fellowship.
  • Jazma Sutton (History, CRRES Graduate Student Affiliate) received the Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowship from Indiana Humanities.
  • Vivek Vellanki (School of Education, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for his project titled "Picturing Diaspora: (re)Framing South Asian Youth Identity and Culture in the Midwestern U.S."
  • Y. Joel Wong (School of Education, Professor; CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the 2020-2021 Faculty Mentor Award from the University Graduate School. Dr. Wong also received funding from the IU Racial Justice Fund for his project titled "Encouragement as a Racial Justice Tool for Black College Students."
Noteworthy Moments
  • Ani Abrahamyan (Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures) co-organized the first international interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies Conference in the U.S.
  • Faye Gleisser (Art History) wrote an exhibition catalog essay titled “The Archives Within the Archive: Hương Ngô and the Making and Unmaking of Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai” (2017), which was translated into Vietnamese and will be distributed with Hương Ngô's exhibition at The Factory Contemporary Art Centre in Ho Chi Minh City.
  • Yael R. Rosenstock Gonzalez (School of Public Health) released the Spanish language version of her book An Introguide to a Sex Positive You: Lessons, Tales, and Tips. She was also hired to write for Pure Romance's Buzz Blog.
  • Valerie Grim (African American and African Diaspora Studies) was quoted in an NPR Segment on Black-Owned Farms.
  • Vivian N. Halloran (English) delivered the keynote speech "From Melting Pot to Sancocho: Imagining Cross-Ethnic Allyship Across Food Narrative Genres" at the Comparative Literature Graduate Student Annual Conference in March.
  • Mihee Kim-Kort (Religious Studies) published an op-ed article in the New York Times titled "I’m a Scholar of Religion. Here’s What I See in the Atlanta Shootings."
  • Kosali Simon (O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs) was featured as a guest on WFYI Health Care Segment.
  • Vivek Vellanki (School of Education, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) organized an exhibition at the East Lansing Public Library called 51 Pounds (Take Me With You), which featured images of objects that immigrants would take with them if they were forced to leave.
  • Ellen Wu (History, Asian American Studies) consulted for and was a featured expert in PBS's recently-released documentary series, Asian Americans.
  • Nelson O. O. Zounlome (School of Education) published a book titled Letters to my Sisters & Brothers: Practical Advice to Successfully Navigate Academia as a Student of Color.

POSTDOCTORAL PROGRAM

The aim of the CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar Program is to nurture the careers of the next generation of scholars conducting research on race and ethnicity. Each year, CRRES conducts a nationwide search and selects postdoctoral scholars in the social sciences and humanities to be housed in departments and schools across campus.

Being quarantined does not stop our weekly postdoc meetings! These regular check-ins provide postdocs a community to write and gain professional development support.
... or having a good time!

Incoming Postdocs

Two new fellows will join CRRES in Fall 2021 !

Aleshia Barajas will be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at Indiana University. She received her PhD in American Studies from Yale University and is currently working on a book manuscript, which introduces an other-than-linear conceptual framework challenging our current binary—here or there—understanding of the US-Mexico border and quotidian border-crossings. This work is based on three years of ethnographic field research at four ports of entry in Baja California/California and Sonora/Arizona, as well as her own personal experience crossing the border every day to attend school in the US. Her research has been generously supported by the Ford Foundation.

Juan Ignacio Mora will be a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Indiana University. Although he has spent time living in San Antonio, Texas and Mexico City, he is a committed Midwesterner who has spent the majority of his life in Chicago and Champaign, Illinois. Juan received his PhD in History with a minor in Latina/o Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2021). He is a historian of Latinxs, race, labor, and popular culture whose work questions the meaning of foodways, migration, and citizenship in the modern United States. As a CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow, he will primarily be working on his book manuscript titled Latino Encounters: Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans in Michigan, 1929-1971. Drawing on multi-lingual research in U.S., Mexican, and Puerto Rican archives, his book examines three groups of Latina/o/xs as they forged national and transnational networks through postwar migration and agricultural labor.

2020-21 CRRES STAFF

Keep scrolling for our jazzy bios!

  • Dina Okamoto, CRRES Director, keeps the Center moving forward. She manages the budget, oversees all programs and staff, advocates for the Center and its affiliates, and interfaces with administrators and other campus leaders.
  • Michelle Moyd, CRRES Associate Director, has lots of ideas. She plans and coordinates the Speaker Series, helps with professional mentorship of the postdoctoral fellows, and supports the Director in a variety of capacities.
  • Jessica Smith, CRRES Administrative Assistant, holds the Center together. She reserves rooms for events, arranges travel, processes small grants, keeps track of money, answers emails, and - most importantly - makes sure that you are fed and caffeinated during the monthly Coffee Hours.
  • Jasmine L. Davis-Randolph, CRRES Graduate Assistant, leads the Undergraduate Research Program, helps coordinate Center activities, and excels in social interaction tasks, like getting the conversation going during CRRES coffee hours.
  • Monica Heilman, CRRES Graduate Assistant, develops our communications and media. She delivers a fresh email to your inbox every Monday morning, maintains key partnerships with external units working with CRRES, and works website magic.
  • Chavonté Wright, CRRES Graduate Assistant, coordinates the annual Graduate Student Symposium, emails the Graduate Student Affiliates without relent, and manages a myriad of tasks with the help of the team. On occasion, she cracks a joke.
  • Shelley Rao, CRRES Graduate Assistant, works closely with the undergraduate social media intern and enjoys experimenting with new content. She also provides support for on-going research projects. On rainy days, she helps with tasks like this newsletter.
  • Muna Adem, CRRES Graduate Assistant, edits research briefs and creates beautiful visualizations of data for our website. She makes sure CRRES affiliates' academic research is communicated to the public in an accessible manner.
  • Martin Law, CRRES Graduate Assistant, helps everyone! He comes to the rescue when assistance is needed. Although fresh to CRRES functions, he stepped up to co-host the research symposium and authored content for this newsletter.
  • Jacob Castenada puts his Generation Z knowledge to use as our Social Media Intern. He reads a lot and keeps our Twitter and Facebook content up-to-date, designs and shares event posters, and comes up with awesome ideas for Instagram flashcards.
  • Tamar Trice, Cox Scholar, would have had a brilliant year conducting and supporting CRRES research but this was stymied by the pandemic. We are excited to bring her on board in the new academic year!

We could not do this work without the generous support of Provost Lauren Robel, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.

Special thanks to our campus partners for 2020-21: the Departments of American Studies, English, and Folklore and Ethnomusicology; the Asian American Studies Program;Race, Migration, and Indigeniety;College Arts and Humanities Institute; Themester; Environmental Resilience Institute; IU Cinema; IU Food Institute; Institute for Advanced Study; The Media School; Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs; Office of the Vice President for International Affairs; and Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion.

Thanks to all for another successful year!

We wish you good health and spirits, and we hope to see you again soon.