From ISIS's abuse of Christian minorities in Iraq, to massacres of Muslims in the Central African republic, to the Charlie Hebdo incident in France, religion and violence (and the question of "religious violence") are current issues about which students and faculty alike have pressing questions. What I've been thinking about as a professor of Islamic Studies in the department of Religious Studies is how to help students frame their learning about these conflicts within broader discourses on secularism, power, media, and the conflation of race and religion in the US and abroad.

CSREA invites you to engage in an informal conversation with Professor Jim Gates (University of Maryland) over lunch. This discussion presents an opportunity to learn more about his experiences as a black professor and theoretical physicist, and discuss challenges faced by underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

Please RSVP by Monday, 3/16 at 5pm if you would like to attend: [email protected]

What I Am Thinking About Now: John Logan, Professor of Sociology; Director, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences

There is wide agreement that most major Northern cities had black ghettos by 1940, after two decades of the Great Migration. This talk will analyze trends in ten Northern cities decade by decade from 1880 to 1940. It will present evidence that processes separating blacks from whites were already in play as early as 1880 or 1900, predating the era of redlining, firebombings, and restrictive covenants.

This panel discussion will feature experts on police policies that have fueled extensive racial and other profiling, the expansion of mass incarceration and the effects of these policies and practices.

Presented in collaboration with the Taubman Center for Public Policy and the Watson Institute for International Studies. 

The Scholarship of Diversity and Inclusion in the Academy: Lessons Learned and the Work Ahead for Universities in the 21st Century 

This day-long symposium brings a group of the nation’s most respected intellectuals on race, racial theory and racial inequality together to consider the troubling state of black life in America today.

What I Am Thinking About Now: Robert G. Lee, Associate Professor of American Studies

Can we conceive the Transpacific as a discrete historical space tied together by continuous flows of goods, people and ideas? What are the parameters, contours and dynamics of this geography? What kind of class, racial and gender formations have emerged from the colonial and post-colonial histories of the Transpacific?

Dr. Laurence Ralph will engage in an open dialogue with students and faculty about urban ethnography, methodology, and crafting a research project. He will discuss some of the challenges of engineering a research project and techniques for writing about emotionally charged social issues.