Developing and Managing the Brown University Library Collections
Collection Policies by Subject:  Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

• Library Liaisons:
  Rosemary Cullen @brown.edu
• Department Chair: 
  Evelyn_Hu-DeHart@brown.edu

• Description of the Academic Program | Center for the Study of Race and Ethncity
  " Ethnic studies is a multidisciplinary and comparative concentration that examines the construction of race and ethnicity in social, cultural, historical, political, and economic contexts. Concentrators are required to take classes in the humanities and social sciences to develop individual programs in consultation with faculty advisors. Each program is organized around a set of core courses. The purpose of the core course is to help students identify a set of historical and theoretical questions to be studied, and to give them the tools necessary to address the questions. The following are some examples of areas of study on which students can focus:
  
  ~ Social issues that affect racial groups (e.g. racial inequalities on health or education
  ~ The study of cultural production or cultural representations of particular racial groups
  ~ The history of particular racial and ethnic groups
  ~ U.S. based historical or subject oriented comparisons of racial groups
  ~ The study of comparative process of racialization
  ~ The formation and history of diasporas and/or transnational communities"
  
  The Center also has the following missions:
  
  ~ To facilitate research on race and ethnicity as social constructions in American society, including comparative studies of analytically similar problems in societies in other parts of the world
  ~ To coordinate and develop Brown's resources for research and teaching on racial and ethnic minorities in America
  ~ To generate intellectual and financial resources for the Center, including support for new faculty positions and for research and curricular development
  ~ To promote university-wide discussion of issues relating to race and ethnicity
  
  Database of Honors, Masters, and Ph.D Theses

• Overview of the Collection
  The interests of the Center are found in many classifications and collections within the Library system. Literature and creative art by and about ethnic and racial groups, histories of colonialism, sociological studies, population and census data, works on issues related to education, health, gender roles, language, legal matters and international relations are all potentially of interest to the Center.

• General Collecting Guidelines
  The Center for Race and Ethnicity shares collecting interests with many other departments and programs at Brown. Materials acquired to support American Civilization, Africana Studies, Anthropology, English, Latin American Studies, Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Sociology, and many other areas also support the Center. In support of undergraduate education, the collections are at the study level; however owing to relationships with many graduate degree conferring departments and to the extensive holdings of Special Collections, the effective collecting level will, in many areas, be at research strength.
  
  Collecting endeavors have focused on acquiring resources for the study and understanding of class, gender, sexuality, identity, and the diverse groups and experiences in society. Immigration, diaspora, and the ethnic/minority experience in general are also important subjects. Interest is not confined to the geographic United States. The effects of globalization and the impact on, and interaction with, other cultures also fall within the Program's purview. There is an increasing interest in film on all related topics.
  

• Specific Collecting Guidelines
  • Language: Primarily English, but works in other languages may be acquired to support research and teaching in areas related to postcolonialism or immigrant communities (Portuguese, Spanish, French, etc.)
  • Chronological Span: The Center's interests span the exploration and colonizing period to the present day.
  • Imprint Date: Most will be current imprints, but selected older works will be acquired at need, including back issues of journals.
  • Geographical Range: Much of the focus is on race and ethnicity in the Western Hemisphere, but race and ethnicity in a world-wide context is an interest.
  • Types of Material Included: Books, journals, electronic resources, microforms, media Excluded: Introductory textbooks and classroom anthologies.

• Areas of Distinction
  Electronic resources that support the Center include Ethnic News Watch, the Hispanic American Periodical Index, Alternative Press Index and Archive, America History and Life, American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography, Chicano Database, Cross-Cultural Database, Info-LatinoAmerica, Latin American Database, Literature and Culture of Francophone Africa, Sociological Abstracts, and Women and Social Movements in the United States. Electronic journals of interest to the Center are found in such categories as arts and humanities, world history, anthropology, family, gender and sexuality, United States history, social science and statistics, Latin American history, and popularion studies, among other areas. For detailed descriptions and links to these important resources, see the Library Resource Guide for the Center for Race and Ethnicity.
  

• Special Collections
  

  Special Collections in the John Hay Library is one of the country's most distinguished repositories of rare books and special collections. Its collections of printed books, manuscripts and archives, and graphic materials, numbering well over 2,500,000 items, provide a wealth of resources in support of undergraduate instruction and faculty research in Race and Ethnicity. Notable collections include the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, at 250,000 volumes the largest of its kind in existence. Historical collections include materials on Afro-American soldiers in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, the Schirmer Collection on Anti-Imperialism, and the Dupee Mexican History Collection. The Archives of the University support research into minorities and ethnic groups in higher education, and specifically at Brown University. The Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Political Propaganda provides a wealth of information about attitudes towards minorities and ethnic groups in twentieth century America. See Collections A to Z for more complete documentation on holdings in Special Collections at the John Hay Library of interest for the study of Race and Ethnicity.
  
  See the Harris Collection Research Guide for African-American Literature
  See the Anne S. K. Brown Print Collection guide.

• Collecting Levels

  New Titles Cataloged

• Related Collections and Other Resources
  Third World Center. Through its events, publications, and programs, the TWC provides collegial support for the Center.
  John Carter Brown Library. The JCB's holdings on Western Hemisphere colonialism through the early 19th century are unsurpassed, and provide a historical context for many of the interests of the Center for Race and Ethnicity.

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