Penn State on Thursday announced the formation of a new center dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias.
The Center for Racial Justice, which will be housed in the multidisciplinary Social Science Research Institute, is among a series of initiatives for improving the climate of diversity inclusion at the university outlined by Penn State President Eric Barron in February.
“While this is just the beginning, the formation of Penn State’s Center for Racial Justice is the result of our University community taking action together toward continued growth, and I am grateful for the commitment of the leaders guiding this effort,” Barron said in a statement.
“By aligning with our education and research mission and ensconcing the center into Penn State’s successful institutional research model, we are bringing scholarly work and dialogue to the forefront. We will be poised to draw upon our research excellence, attract additional talented scholars, and develop new insights in these critical areas.”
Penn State is conducting a national search for the center’s director, who will help develop and implement its strategic mission, focus and multi-year plan.
Senior Vice President for Research Lora Weiss will lead the search and with SSRI will bring together researchers, scholars and practitioners with relevant expertise.
“Integrated into our research engine, the new Center for Racial Justice will allow us to leverage our strengths as a University to promote and shepherd vital research around racial justice, as we facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration among leading experts at Penn State and other institutions,” Weiss said in a statement.
In June 2020, amid racial justice protests that swept the nation following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Barron announced plans for actions at the university “to fight ignorance and intolerance, model inclusivity and embrace the power that diversity represents.”
Among those was the creation of a Select Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias and Community Safety comprised of university leaders and scholars to “to make concrete recommendations on supporting the safety of faculty, staff and students associated with bias and racism,” and “to examine the deployment of University resources to address the profound social issues related to bias that we face pervasively as a nation.”
The center, according to a university news release will “advance the work of the commission,” which with university leaders developed the center’s initial objectives.
Those objectives include:
– Supporting and coordinating cross-disciplinary research activities throughout Penn State campuses, academic fields and outreach;
– Creating a fellowship program for faculty to focus on relevant research topics within the center through seed grants that can lead to external funding or through term appointments that foster broader collaborations;
– Creating an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through scholarships and project support;
– Driving service and outreach opportunities that promote public discourse and the broad transfer of knowledge.
– Providing educational tools for faculty and staff, workshops and public forums and other avenues to enable the development of racial justice pedagogies.
According to the release, the Presidential Commission’s work to create the center has been led by co-chairs Danielle M. Conway, dean and professor at Penn State Dickinson Law; Clarence Lang, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; and Beth Seymour, past chair of the University Faculty Senate and associate teaching professor at Penn State Altoona.
They said the center was made possible “because of the dedication and vision of faculty, staff, students and an engaged alumna who participated in the commission’s work — and who heard the call for action across the nation and embraced the need to broaden the scope of the University’s mission to promote critical research and education.”
