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A Message from the Directors
June 2022
Dear CRRES Friends and Colleagues,
We write to you after the close of another challenging year with the continuing pandemic and racial violence against Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian American communities. More than ever, we see an urgent need for research on race and ethnicity, paired with a strong commitment to racial justice.
This year we also write to let you know that there will be a change in leadership at CRRES, as we are both transitioning out of our roles as Director and Associate Director at the end of June. Dina came to IU as part of a national search for the CRRES Director and has spent the last eight years building and developing the Center. Michelle came on as Associate Director in 2015 and has been key in the vision and programming that CRRES now has today. Together, we have developed and sustained programs that raise the visibility of research on race and ethnicity. We have supported meaningful research across disciplines and topics by providing professional resources, mentoring, and funding. And perhaps most importantly, we are proud of our work to advance racial equity and justice by creating a space and community where scholars – many of whom are from underrepresented, historically excluded, racialized groups – can thrive.
Over the past year, we continued our research and programming in remote and hybrid formats, adjusting to the ebbs and flows of the pandemic. CRRES upheld our tradition of robust programming and campus engagement through a Speaker Series, modified Coffee Hours, and a Research Symposium, which featured an outside speaker and showcased the incredible research done by student researchers and faculty in the CRRES Undergraduate Research Program.
In the midst of continued nation-wide concern around topics of race and racism, CRRES scholars responded to calls for their expertise on race. Our affiliates participated in a range of service activities to educate the university community and larger public about histories and experiences of race and racism, from engaging in public discussions about a digital exhibit on the Black-white racial wealth gap, to mobilizing the expertise of education scholars to address book bans and misinformation about Critical Race Theory. Affiliates also continued to share their research in the new Research Brief section of our website.
Demonstrating the strength of our research community, several CRRES affiliates secured funding for innovative research projects, which were supported by and featured through Indiana Studies on Racial Justice, organized by IU Bloomington’s Platform Arts and Humanities Research Laboratory. CRRES research and affiliates were once again featured in this year’s Bloomington Symposia on Migration organized by the Institute for Advanced Studies in collaboration with CRRES. As these projects continue, we look forward to the important insights this research will yield, addressing core issues including environmental justice, resource accessibility, and social change.
This year, we celebrate our 10th year as a center and our 4th year as a campus-wide center under the IU Office of the Vice Provost for Research. CRRES continues to be a vibrant space, now with 60 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 for a snapshot of what the Center and our affiliates have accomplished this year.
It has been a privilege and honor over the years to work with our many partners across campus as we have continued to amplify research on race and ethnicity, strengthen interdisciplinary networks and community, and serve as a research resource—all with an eye toward racial justice and social change. Although our time as directors has come to end, we look forward to supporting CRRES as it continues to grow and serve as a crucial intellectual space for scholars of race and ethnicity across campus.
Dina Okamoto, CRRES Director
Michelle Moyd, CRRES Associate Director
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.
Fall Speakers
Chinbo Chong
CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Political Science, Indiana University
"Identity and its Appeals in American Politics"
At our first in-person Speaker Series since the start of the pandemic, CRRES postdoc Chinbo Chong discussed two survey experiment studies designed to examine how Latinos and Asian Americans respond to political candidates' appeals to pan-ethnic, single ethnic, or American identities. She finds that appeals to specific ethnic identities are most influential, highlighting important nuances around group identity, membership, and political engagement.
Vivek Vellanki
CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, Indiana University
"Thinking, Feeling, Creating with Photography: Widening the Lens of Visual Research in Education"
Next we heard from CRRES Postdoc Vivek Vellanki, who discussed the use of photography in education research before delving into his recent work, "The Passport Photo Project." This project invites racially and ethnically minoritized immigrants and refugees to engage in collaborative artmaking, which challenges and reshapes the bureaucratic nature of the passport photo.
Kevin Escudero
Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies, Brown University
"Organizing While Undocumented: Immigrant Youth's Political Activism under the Law"
We concluded the Fall Speaker Series lineup with Assistant Professor Kevin Escudero, who shared his scholarship with a large virtual audience. Escudero's work is based on five years of ethnographic and interview research with undocumented immigrant activists in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City. He considers how undocumented activists draw on the intersections of their Asian, Latinx, and queer identities to build coalitions and connect to broader social justice movements.
Spring Speakers
Catherine Denial
Director of the Bright Institute, Chair of American History, Knox College
"The Possibilities of Teaching with Kindness"
We kicked off our spring Speaker Series with a virtual talk from Catherine Denial, who discussed how to apply a Pedagogy of Kindness in the classroom. The talk included a discussion of the importance of recognizing racialized differences for instructors and students, to work toward a larger goal of justice.
Soulit Chacko
Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Religion and Urban Culture, Department of Sociology, Indiana University-Purdue University
"Place Making in Ethnic Beauty Salons"
Soulit Chacko shared her ethnographic research on ethnic beauty salons, grappling with the dynamics that lead immigrant women workers to be framed as unskilled and trapped within low wage work. Moving beyond a meritocratic, "bootstraps" narrative, Chacko highlights the structural forces that shape the lives of Pakinstani and Indian women working in beauty salons.
Joseph Tucker Edmonds
Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University
"Christian Fatigue and Black Visions of Freedom: Rethinking the Future of Black Religion in the Age of Black Lives Matter"
Joseph Tucker Edmonds spoke to us about his research on alternative Christian and religious movements. He engages with the concept of "Christian fatigue," but notes that among Black millennials, this shift represents a new orientation toward the Black Church and Black Christian formation, rather than a complete rejection. Tucker Edmonds considers activist and millennial movements that call for new models of Black leadership, yet continue to draw on features of Black Christianity.
Casey Nichols
Assistant Professor, Department of History, Texas State University
"From Civil Rights to Model Cities: How Black and Brown Angelenos Shaped Federal Policy"
Casey Nichols examines the response of Los Angeles residents to their exclusion from the 1967 Model Cities Program. In her talk, she detailed the Black and Brown residents' activism during this time, focusing on advocacy made possible by the Chicano Movement in the 1960s.
CO-SPONSORED EVENTS & WORKSHOPS
Throughout the year, CRRES collaborates with several units across campus, facilitating interdisciplinary spaces and intellectual exchange with nationally acclaimed scholars.
The Joy of Congee: A Conversation on Food and Activism with Alice Wong and Sandy Ho
At this virtual event, Asian American disability activists and community organizers Alice Wong and Sandy Ho discussed food, joy, and sustenance. In the context of an on-going pandemic and increasing anti-Asian violence, this conversation provided space to consider the importance of rest, recovery, and pleasure to sustain activist work. The title of this event, "The Joy of Congee" was a subversive nod to the recent appropriation and whitewashing of this dish, and a conscious decision to focus instead on what sustains us and our communities in difficult times.
This event was co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program, the Race, Migration and Indigeneity Program, IU College Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Department of American Studies, Department of Gender Studies, Department of Sociology, and the Center for Research on Race & Ethnicity in Society.
A Visit from Cathy Park Hong
After a winter storm reschedule, we were pleased to host Cathy Park Hong this spring! An award-winning poet and essayist, she is particularly known for her book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. Hong weaves together personal stories, historical context, and cultural criticism to ultimately create an emotional and impactful exploration of Asian American personhood. Hong is the author of several books of poetry and the recipient of notable awards such as the Windham-Campbell Prize. She spoke at the Burskirk-Chumley Theater with CRRES Director Dina Okamoto. The following day, CRRES and CAHI hosted an intimate discussion between Cathy Park Hong and a small group of IU faculty and graduate students.
This event was presented by the IU Arts and Humanities Council, in partnership with the College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) and the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society. This event was also part of the Council’s Korea Remixed Festival and was a 2022 Ruth N. Halls Lecture.
Bans & Burnings: A Panel Discussion Examining the Attacks on Public Education
Organized by CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar Vivek Vellanki, this panel brought prominent education scholars together to discuss recent instances of suppression in public education. Panelists engaged with increasing book bans in school libraries, burnings that targeted materials on race, racism, and LGBTQ+ themes, as well as recent local legislation, HB 1134, which would have severely curtailed Indiana teachers' ability to engage students students engage in discussions of identity, equality, and justice. We heard from Lisa Aguilar (Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology), Marcus Croom (Curriculum and Instruction), Alex Cuenca (Curriculum and Instruction; and Teacher Education), and Tennisha Riley (Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology; CRRES Affiliate).
Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States
This spring, we also saw the launch of "Land, Wealth, Liberation: The Making and Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States," a digital exhibit that explores the racial wealth gap between Black and white Americans. With photos, videos, and resources spanning 1820-2020, this interactive timeline provides a history of Black wealth covering Black Americans' efforts for economic progress and land ownership, as well as concentrated efforts from white law-makers and companies to suppress them. Viewers can learn about the history and effects of practices such as redlining, predatory lending, and direct violence. The collection also discusses interactions between Indigenous people and Black American groups, recognizing that Native dispossession operated alongside U.S. efforts to build wealth through the labor of enslaved peoples.
The pop-up launch event, which displayed a selection of physical materials at the Lilly Library, featured two speakers. CRRES Faculty Affiliate Valerie Grim, an expert in African American rural history, spoke on "Struggles in Building Black Wealth." Scholar-activist and author Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman delivered the 2022 Institute for Advanced Study’s Branigin Lecture, "Race & Gender in the Economy." She argues that creating economic solutions that benefit Black woman, who are often the most economically marginalized group, is an approach that can create better outcomes for all.
This collection is hosted by the IU Lilly Library. The launch event was cosponsored by IU Libraries, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.
The Bloomington Symposia: Migration
The Bloomington Symposia (or TBS) organized by the IU Institute for Advanced Study is an initiative that gathers researchers and scholars from across campus to engage in cross-disciplinary thinking and incubate collaborative research. This working group meets regularly throughout the year, with their efforts culminating in an end-of-year symposia. This year, the theme of TBS was "Migration," and was led by co-convenors Dina Okamoto (CRRES Director) and Sylvia Martinez (CRRES Affiliate).
At a three-day conference in April, we heard presentations from six additional CRRES affiliates: Ishan Ashutosh, Irit Dekel, Alex Lichenstein, Juan Mora, Michelle Moyd, and Phoebe Wolfskill. Participants discussed topics from migrant workers, identity and art, diasporic routes, and South African apartheid.
The symposia hosted two outside speakers, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, University of Southern California) and Katharine M. Donato (Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration; Director, Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University).
This event was co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies and the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM (URP)
The CRRES Undergraduate Research Program (URP) provides undergraduates with the opportunity to conduct research related to race and ethnicity under the mentorship of a faculty member. Research experiences include coding texts and visual media, examining archival documents, analyzing datasets, and preparing experimental and audit studies. Throughout the semester, students attend professional development workshops and their work culminates in a poster presentation at the CRRES Research Symposium.
CRRES RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
This year, the CRRES Research Symposium featured keynote speaker Mike Amezcua (Georgetown University) and poster presentations from participants in the Undergraduate Research Program.
On Thursday, April 21st, Dr. Mike Amezcua (Georgetown University) gave the symposium keynote titled "Making Mexican Chicago: From Postwar Settlement to the Age of Gentrification." Based on his book of the same title, Dr. Amezcua's research examines the lives of Mexican Chicagoans after World War II. He finds that Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans used diverse strategies to fight segregation and gentrification, and gain the political power to control the fate of their neighborhoods.
The following day, participants in the Undergraduate Research Program shared findings from the research they conducted throughout the year. Their projects covered a diverse array of topics, from archival research into the life and legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks, to content analysis on media coverage of anti-Asian hate crimes.
Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations
Rebekah Amaya (with mentor Dr. Steve Pahko), "Remembering the Racial Violence of American Capitalism: The Destruction of Black Wall Street, 100 Years Later"
Maria Guadalupe Jaimes (with mentor Dr. Kosali Simon), "Healthcare Utilization among Unhoused People"
Ann Kovoor (with mentor Dr. Chinbo Chong), "Coverage of Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in Ethnic Media: A Study of Chinese American Media across 10 U.S. Metropolitan Areas"
Mofe Koya (with mentor Dr. Clark Barwick) "The Legacy and the Future of Gwendolyn Brooks"
Bella Melrose (with mentor Dr. Alberto Ortega), "The Implication of the Rapid Expansion of Politically Polarized Media - Tracking the Trend of Prejudice and Civil Rights Voting Patterns"
Kemal Perdana (with mentor Dr. Koji Chavez), "Gender/Racial Bias in Software Engineering Hiring: The Role of Diversity Demand across Job Levels"
Luke Swain (with mentor Dr. Vivek Vellanki), "Picturing Diaspora: (re)Framing South Asian Youth Identity and Culture in the Midwestern U.S."
Christina Yang (with mentor Dr. Ellen Wu), "An Origin Story: The Implications of the Page Act of 1875 on Asian American Women and Reproductive Justice in Indiana"
GRANT AWARDEES
Each year, CRRES provides funding to support faculty and graduate student research. This funding helps scholars across campus develop their research agendas and progress in their theses and dissertations.
Congratulations to all recipients!
Graduate Student Research Grants
- Karyn Housh (Learning and Developmental Sciences, School of Education), “Exploring the Learning Experiences of Women of Color (WoC) in STEM”
- Yingjian Liang (Sociology), "Staying Within or Reaching Beyond: The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries as Mechanisms of Immigrant Labor Market Stratification"
- Rossmary Márquez-Lameda (Health Behavior, School of Public Health), "Medical Mistrust, Perceived Discrimination, and Healthcare Utilization among Venezuelan Migrant and Refugees in Peru"
- Aditi Tandon (History, Philosophy, and Policy in Education, School of Education), "Dissecting Hegemonic Beliefs: Critical Perspectives of Caste, Class, and Gender in Schools in Central India"
- Donovan Watts (Political Science) "The Politics of Black Millennials"
Faculty Research Grants
- Stephanie Andrea Allen (Department of Gender Studies), "We Must Document Ourselves Now: Black Lesbian Cultural Legacies and the Politics of Self-Representation"
AFFILIATE NEWS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Our CRRES Affiliates are highly accomplished scholars in their fields. Below we provide a brief snapshot of their publications, awards, and achievements during 2021-22.
Selected Publications
- Stephanie Andrea Allen (Gender, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published a new book How to Dispatch a Human at BLF Press and has a forthcoming publication titled “The Unbearable Whiteness of Lesbian Studies” in Feminists Talk Whiteness (edited by Leigh-Ann Francis and Janet Gray)
- Ishan Ashutosh (Geography, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Re-Bordering South Asia: displaced persons and urbanization” in Annals of the American Association of Geographers (with Sharif Wahab)
- Clark Barwick (Kelley School of Business, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Coffee over Zoom: Teaching Food Studies over the Internet during a Pandemic” in Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology
- Cara Caddoo (The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Synchronicity, Social Media, and the Modern Protest Movement” in Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media
- Chinbo Chong (Political Science, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) published “New Directions in the Study of Asian American Politics, Part II: Political Behavior” in PS: Political Science & Politics (with Nathan Chan and Tanya Raychaudhuri)
- La’Teeká Gray (Anthropology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published a book review of “Indian Migrants in Tokyo: A Study of Socio-Cultural, Religious, and Working Worlds” in South Asian Diaspora
- Valerie Grim (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published the edited volume Unleashing Suppressed Voices on College Campuses: Diversity Issues (with Kandace G. Hinton et al.) in Peter Lang
- Monica Heilman (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “The Racial Elevator Speech: How Multiracial Individuals Respond to Racial Identity Inquiries” in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
- Sarah Imhoff (Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published her book The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Disabled, Zionist at Duke University Press
- David Konisky (O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Environmental Injustice in Clean Water Act Enforcement: Racial and Income Disparities in Inspection Time” in Environmental Research Letters (with Christopher Reenock and Shannon Conley) and “Sociodemographic Disparities in Energy Insecurity among Low-income Households Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in Nature Energy (with Trevor Memmott, Sanya Carley, and Michelle Graff).
- Hyeyoung Kwon (Sociology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life” in American Journal of Sociology
- Alex Lichtenstein (History, American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published the foreword for Journalism and Jim Crow: The Press and the Making of White Supremacy in the New South (edited by Kathy Roberts Forde and Sid Bedingfield) and “The US South and Labor’s Fate,” a review of The Southern Key: Race, Class, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s by Michael Goldfield in Against the Current
- Anne Mahady (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “Intersecting Installation Art and Abstract Painting” in Rough and Unequal: A Film by Kevin Jerome Everson (edited by The Grunwald Gallery of Art and The Black Film Center/Archive)
- Michael T. Martin (The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published "On Mediated Solidarity: Reading Ousmane Sembene in 'Sembene!" in Black Camera
- Sylvia Martinez (Education, Latino Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Focusing on Faculty: A Missing Link in Community-University Partnerships” in the Journal of Educational & Psychological Consultation (with Jennifer Ng and Rebecca S. Martinez)
- Michelle Moyd (History, CRRES Associate Director) published “In Service of Empires: Apaches and Askaris as Colonial Soldiers” in German and United States Colonialism in a Connected World (edited by Janne Lahti)
- Rasul A. Mowatt (Geography, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published a new book titled The Geographies of Threat and the Production of Violence: The State and the City Between Us at Routledge
- Dina Okamoto (Sociology, CRRES Director) published “Belonging and Vulnerability in San Francisco: Undocumented Latinx Parents and Local Claims-Making” in Latinx Belonging: Community-Building and Resilience in the United States (with Melanie Gast and Jack Allen).
- Alberto Ortega (O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Essential Workers, Mental Health, and the Coronavirus Pandemic” in Review of Black Political Economy (with Jevay Grooms, Joaquin Alfredo, Angel Rubalcaba, and Edward Vargas)
- Solimar Otero (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published the edited volume Theorizing Folklore from the Margins: Critical and Ethical Approaches in Indiana University Press (with Mintzi Martínez-Rivera)
- Radhika Parameswaran (The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Digital Cultures of South Asia: Inequalities, Informatization, Infrastructures” in Communication, Culture & Critique (with Kalyani Chadha and Sangeet Kumar)
- Fabio Rojas (Sociology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) “Black Lives Matter protests shift public discourse” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (with Zackary Okun Dunivin, Harry Yaojun Yan, Jelani Ince)
- Yael R. Rosenstock Gonzalez (Public Health, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “Skin Color and Skin Tone Diversity in Human Sexuality Textbook Anatomical Diagrams” in Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy (with Deana Williams and Debby Herbenick)
- Kosali Simon (O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Determinants of Disparities in Early COVID-19 Job Losses” in Demography (with Laura Montenovo, Xuan Jiang, Felipe Lozano-Rojas, Ian Schmutte, Bruce A Weinberg, Coady Wing)
- Vivek Vellanki (Education, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) published “Shifting the Frame: Theoretical and Methodological Explorations of Photography in Educational Research” in Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies
- James Thomas Watkins (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “Youth Mask-Wearing and Social-Distancing Behavior at In-Person High School Graduations During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in Journal of Adolescent Health (with Anna Mueller, Sarah Diefendorf, Seth Abrutyn, Katherine A. Beardall, Krystina Millar, Lauren O’Reilly, and Hillary Steinberg)
- Brenda R. Weber (Gender, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “The Incredible Invisible Woman: Age, Beauty, and the Specter of Identity” in The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics (edited by Maxine Leeds Craig)
- Jakobi Williams (History and African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) has two forthcoming reviews: “Garrett Felber, Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State” in Journal of American History, and “Johanna Fernandez, The Young Lords: A Radical History” in American Historical Review
- Phoebe Wolfskill (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published entries on AFRICOBRA and James VanDerZee in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art at Oxford University Press, and a review of “Mary Schmidt Campbell, An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden” in the Journal of American Studies
- Y. Joel Wong (Education, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “COVID-19 anti-Asian racism: A tripartite model of collective psychosocial resilience" in American Psychologist (with Hsiu-Lan Cheng, Helen Youngju Kim, Jason D Reynolds Taewon Choi, Yuying Tsong)
- Cynthia Wu (Gender, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “It Depends: Academic Labor and the Materiality of the Body” in Sex, Identity, Aesthetics: The Work of Tobin Siebers and Disability Studies (edited by Jina B. Kim, Joshua Kupetz, Crystal Yin Lie, and Cynthia Wu)
Placements & Awards
Postdoctoral Scholar Placements
- Aleshia Barajas, Indiana University, Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies, 2023-24
- Chinbo Chong, Northeastern University, Assistant Professor, Political Science and Asian American Studies, 2023-24
- Juan Mora, Indiana University, Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2023-24
- Vivek Vellanki, Indiana University, Assistant Professor, School of Education, 2022-23
Selected Awards
- Maria Hamilton Abegunde (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received a FACET Mumford Excellence in Extraordinary Teaching Award and the 2021 Inaugural Inclusive Excellence Award
- Muna Adem (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won the 2022-23 Wells Graduate Fellowship
- Clark Barwick (Kelley School of Business, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received an IDAH Summer Incubator: Towards and Open Monograph Ecosystem Award as well as the Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award from the IU Center of Excellence for Women & Technology
- Liza Black (History, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the 2022 Indiana University Bloomington Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
- Melissa Garcia (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won the 2022 President’s Diversity Dissertation Fellowship
- Valerie Grim (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the National Council of Black Studies Leadership Award
- Sarah Imhoff (Religious Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the IDAH - Summer Incubator Award for her project Towards and Open Monograph Ecosystem
- J’Mauri Jackson (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to fund her project titled “Reconciliation through Shared Oppression: An Intersectional Analysis of BIPOC Students' Help-seeking Behaviors”
- Alisha Lola Jones (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won two awards from the American Music Society for her book, Flaming? The Peculiar Theo-politics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance, The Music in American Culture Award and The Phillip Brett Award
- David Konisky (O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received an award from the JPB Foundation for his project, “Utility Disconnection and Energy Insecurity in the U.S.”
- Hyeyoung Kwon (Sociology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received a FACET Mumford Excellence in Extraordinary Teaching Award and IU Sociology Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award
- Alex Lichtenstein (History, American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate), Phoebe Wolfskill (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) and Rasul Mowatt (former CRRES Faculty Affiliate in Geography) received multiple grants for their project, “Unmasked: The 1935 Anti-lynching Art Exhibits and Community Remembrance in Indiana,” including an IU Public Arts and Humanities Project Grant
- Sylvia Martinez (Education, Latino Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the Institute for Advanced Study Residential Award. Dr. Martinez was also the Recipient of the 2021 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book of the Year, Senior Scholar Category
- Michelle Moyd (History, CRRES Associate Director) was awarded a Mellon Foundation Platform Indiana Studies Fellowship for her project “Fighting for Citizenship”
- Mary Murphy (Psychological and Brain Sciences, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the 2022 IU Distinguished Faculty Award and delivered an accompanying lecture titled "Faculty as Culture Creators: The Role of Faculty Mindset in Student Success"
- Alberto Ortega (O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received an award from the Social Sciences Research Funding Program
- Solimar Otero (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was recognized as the 2021 Folklore Fellow from the American Folklore Society and won the 2022 IU Latino Faculty and Staff Council Faculty Award
- Tennisha Riley (Education, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the 2022 Award for Outstanding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Achievements
- Fabio Rojas (Sociology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received a Russell Sage Foundation Award (with Jelani Ince) for his co-authored work "Black Lives Matter Impact on Political Mobilization and Antiracist Discourse" and received a grant from the Institute for Humane Studies, Program for Free Speech & Open Inquiry at George Mason University
- Anna Acosta Russian (Sociology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won the 2022 IU Latino Faculty and Staff Council Graduate Student Award
- Donovan A. Watts (Political Science, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) received the Arthur F. Bentley Dissertation Research Award
- Jakobi Williams (African American and African Diaspora Studies, History, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the Black Metropolis Research Consortium Award by the Mellon Foundation
- Cynthia Wu (Gender Studies, Asian American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the Outstanding Journal Reviewer Award from the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies at University of Liverpool Press
Noteworthy Moments
- Valerie Grim (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate), with Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and IU Libraries, launched the digital exhibit “Land, Wealth, Liberation: the Making & Unmaking of Black Wealth in the United States,” which was covered in several media outlets including: Black Enterprise, Ebony, Finurah, Indiana Newsdesk on WTIU, and The Indiana Daily Student
- Pamela Braboy Jackson (Sociology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) delivered the Tracy M. Sonneborn Lecture (as a 2021 award recipient) and was appointed as Indiana University’s first Associate Vice President for Faculty and Belonging
- Alex Lichtenstein (History, American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) wrote an article for the Indianapolis Recorder titled “Unmasked: Remembering a Lynching”
- Michael T. Martin (The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) concluded a Special Issue Series in Black Camera created in collaboration with the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO)
- Michael T. Martin, Amrita Myers, and Cynthia Wu, alongside four other faculty, co-signed a statement on IU graduate student unionization published in The Bloomingtonian and The Herald Times
- Michelle Moyd (History, CRRES Associate Director) published a Veterans Day op-ed in the Washington Post
- Dina Okamoto (Sociology, CRRES Director) wrote a piece for the William T. Grant Foundation Reducing Inequality Series on "How We can Engage with Race and Racism in Research: Developing a Racial Analysis."
- Kosali Simon (O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was elected to the National Academy of Medicine
- Jazma Sutton (History, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) has accepted a position as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Miami University of Ohio
- Ellen Wu (History, Asian American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was named a Class of 2022 New American Fellow and was quoted in the New York Times, NBC, and Teen Vogue, discussing topics from Asian American participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics to AAPI Heritage Month
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.
Incoming Postdocs & Scholars
Two new postdoctoral fellows will join CRRES in Fall 2022!
Olivia Uzodima Ekeh 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 African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. She received her Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Broadly, her research centers on 20th Century Black history, music, and popular culture. At CRRES she will be working on a book manuscript focusing on the historical and aesthetic significance of the soul era from the mid 20th Century on the larger Black music tradition. Using historical methods combined with literary criticism and analysis, music and performance studies, the project explores the importance of quotidian or experiences of the everyday on music from the soul era of the 20th Century on post-soul and contemporary Black musicians. Her archival research is heavily indebted to the Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) supporting her endeavor to broaden the sphere of soul music’s historical legacy beyond the exclusive scope of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power.
Min Joo Lee 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 Gender Studies at Indiana University. Min Joo received her Ph.D. in Gender Studies from University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to coming to Indiana University, she worked as a Visiting Lecturer at Wellesley College. Her research is positioned at the intersection of Asian Studies, Gender Studies, and Media Studies. Min Joo’s first book project, tentatively titled Finding Mr. Perfect: Korean Television Dramas, Romance, and Race, examines the gendered and racial politics of the transnational popularity of Korean popular culture. Her second book-length research project, tentatively titled Digital Rape: Illicit Pornography, Sexual Consent, and Race, analyzes the transnational dissemination of illegal and non-consensual Korean sex videos to examine how digital media have generated new forms of sexual and racial violence.
Visiting Scholar
Next year, CRRES will also host visiting scholar Tina Irvine, a 2022 Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies.
Tina Irvine is a social and cultural historian of the modern United States, with a particular interest in examining the shifting ideas about race and the boundaries of American citizenship in the long twentieth century. She received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and has taught in Indiana University's History Department and the Kelley School of Business since that time. This year, as a 2022 ACLS Fellow, she is at work on her first book, Americanizing Appalachia: Mountain Reform and the Pursuit of a White American Identity, 1890-1933.
This research explains how and why a tangled mix of educators, public health officials, white supremacists, and eugenicists placed mountain whites in their crosshairs in the early twentieth century. It analyzes mountain reform as part of the Americanization movement and as a response to concerns about a weakened color line to show how Americans came to see Appalachians’ reform as critical to a larger project of creating a homogenous white democracy. Although reformers were unable to decide if the region was a racial and civic reserve of pure-blooded Anglo-Saxons or a eugenically dangerous conglomerate of degenerate “white trash,” they collectively agreed that mountain whites’ social and cultural reform mattered– not only for the region’s, but for the nation’s, future.
2021-22 CRRES STAFF
- 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.
- 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.
- Shelley Rao, CRRES Graduate Assistant, co-leads the Undergraduate Research Program. She also creates educational social media graphics and enjoys experimenting with new content.
- Melissa Garcia, CRRES Graduate Assistant, co-leads the Undergraduate Research Program, mentoring students, delivering workshops, and maintaining the structure that allows our undergraduate researchers to do awesome work.
- Muna Adem, CRRES Graduate Assistant, solicits and edits CRRES Affiliate research briefs for our website. She also assists in a variety of Center activities, including talking a good game at the CRRES table on First Thursdays.
- Tamar Trice, Cox Scholar, stuck with us after her initial assignment was postponed by the pandemic. This year she helped us keep up with CRRES affiliate news by writing news briefs. She also worked with the Social Media and Communications intern to design fliers and grow our social media accounts.
- Anna Sarpong, CRRES Social Media and Communications Intern, maintains our social media accounts, designs fliers and graphics, and keeps our team young. She curates relevant news content for our online audience and helps us stay relevant to the social media algorithms.
We could not do this work without the generous support of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
Special thanks to our campus partners for 2021-22: the Departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies; Sociology; and Spanish and Portuguese; the Arts and Humanities Council; Asian American Studies Program; Race, Migration, and Indigeneity Program; College Arts and Humanities Institute; College Office of Diversity and Inclusion; Environmental Resilience Institute; First Thursdays; Institute for Advanced Study; IU Libraries; People's Cooperative Market; Renaissance Studies Program; and Themester.