The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC) at the University of Chicago is an interdisciplinary program dedicated to promoting engaged scholarship and debate around the topics of race and ethnicity. We are especially interested in how these ideas and their structural manifestations impact and shape people’s daily lives. Researchers affiliated with the Center recognize the significance of the black/white paradigm in the United States, however, we are committed to expanding the study of race and ethnicity beyond the black/white paradigm. Broadly, our research program encourages the study of race and processes of racialization in comparative and transnational frameworks. Thus, the work of faculty affiliates ranges from an examination of processes of racialization among dominant groups to the study of racialized minorities within the United States and black and/or indigenous populations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Asian Pacific, and Europe.
Central to our work is the acknowledgement that race and ethnicity intersect with other primary identities such as gender, class, sexuality and nationality, necessitating the exploration of social and identity cleavages within racialized communities. Being an interdisciplinary program, scholars affiliated with the Center utilize a range of methods to investigate the material condition, the expressive culture and the meaning making of racialized groups. Fundamentally, we are committed to producing engaged scholarship that rejects the false dichotomy between rigorous intellectual work and community activism. We seek instead to contribute intellectually challenging and innovative scholarship that can help people transform their thinking and their lives.
