The Center for Race & Gender

 

The Center for Race & Gender (CRG) is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of California, Berkeley that supports critical and engaged research on race, gender, and their intersections.

Launched as a result of the 1999 Ethnic Studies Student Strike, the CRG cultivates innovative research and creative projects, and generates exchange among faculty and students throughout the university, between the university and local communities of color, and among scholars in the Bay Area, in the US, and around the globe.

Photo by Peg Skorpinski

THE CRG CREATES PATHWAYS FOR RESEARCH ON RACE, GENDER, & THEIR INTERSECTIONS

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Provides a platform for advanced scholarship through symposia, conferences, and research institutes; awards grants to support student research & creative projects; organizes bi-weekly forums to spotlight emerging work by faculty, students, and scholars.

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Multimedia Archive

Hosts a multimedia library including audio podcasts, videos, photos, artwork, and ongoing news updates, reflecting multiple dimensions of critical knowledge production.

Local & Global Collaboration

Connects local, national, and international scholars by developing transnational research and organizing major conferences and events designed for scholarly exchange.

Transformative Research

Catalyzes major research initiatives — such as the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project and the Political Conflict, Gender, & People’s Rights Project — and hosts research working groups that are breaking new ground in race and gender scholarship.

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Latest Publications

Publications produced by CRG research groups and affiliated faculty highlight important new developments on ideas and inquiry on race, gender, and their intersections.

Art & Community

Bridges research, culture, and community by supporting community-engaged creative works open to the public.

HISTORY

Ethnic Studies Student Strike, 1999
CRG Inaugural Conference, 2002

Photo 1: 1999 Ethnic Studies Student Strike
Photo 2: CRG Inaugural Conference, 2002

The creation of the Center for Race and Gender by the Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley on January 1, 2001, marked a major step forward by the University in recognition of significant new realities in the State of California and within the university community.

Since its founding 134 years ago, U.C. Berkeley has grown into one of the foremost public universities in the nation and has become an internationally recognized center of teaching and research in the natural and social sciences and humanities. UC Berkeley has served the State of California in many ways: intellectually, culturally, and economically. But in recent decades, the racial composition of the State has changed profoundly, and the Berkeley student body has mirrored this change by enrolling much greater numbers of Native American, African American, Latino, and Asian American students. Yet the university’s faculty, administration, course offerings, and funding allocations lagged behind the needs and circumstances of the State’s population and the new composition of Berkeley students. Accordingly, in the great tradition of Berkeley student activism, in 1999 a group of students demanded, via direct action, that the university address a variety of issues, including failure to allocate faculty positions to the Department of Ethnic Studies and insufficient support for critical race research.

More about the transformative 1999 Ethnic Studies Student Strike can be learned from the short and powerful film, On Strike: Ethnic Studies 1969-1999.

Photo: UndocuNation Poster Gallery, UC Berkeley, 2/15/13
Photo taken by Perla Garcia