Leadership

The "Rutgers Researchers On Race" database is an innovative, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary showcase of Rutgers University's scholars deeply engaged in race and ethnicity studies. This directory, reflecting our commitment to inclusive scholarship, comprises experts from diverse fields like Cultural Studies, History, Sociology, Political Science, and Ethnic Studies. Each profile details the researcher's academic background, research interests, publications, and ongoing projects. This resource aims to facilitate collaboration, mentorship, and a broader understanding of race and ethnicity among Rutgers researchers, students, and the wider academic community.

It is with great pleasure that we share the third edition of our newsletter, at the beginning of ISGRJ’s fifth year as a research institute devoted to advancing the humanistic study of race, supported by a generous Higher Learning grant from the Mellon Foundation. As we enter the final two years of grant-funded activity, we write to introduce new members of the ISGRJ community, update everyone on our continuing programs and initiatives, and share key milestones and events from the past academic year.

Congratulations to Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice Founding and Executive Director Michelle Stephens for being honored with the Rutgers Global Health Institute's Champion in Global Health Award for 2024!!

The Champion in Global Health is awarded to extraordinary leaders in our global fight for health equity who have made a significant difference in addressing health inequity in New Jersey and around the world. 

Stephens was one of 3 recipients of the award presented by Rutgers Global Health Institute Director and Henry Rutgers Professor of Global Health, Richard Marlink at the RGHI Membership virtual meeting on October 10, 2024. 

Meet Our Faculty: In this Rutgers Global Health Institute content series, we highlight our core faculty members.

She may not have realized it at the time, but Michelle Stephens’s apparently disparate professional roles – as the dean of humanities at Rutgers’ School of Arts and Sciences and as a psychoanalyst – placed her perfectly to create a major scholarly initiative examining the interplay between race and health. That endeavor, Black Bodies, Black Health, is a signature project of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, founded at Rutgers in 2020 by Stephens, who also serves as its executive director.

Congratulations to the ISGRJ faculty who received awards this year from The Rutgers Research Council Awards. The program offers grant opportunities to support faculty research and especially to encourage scholarship in tackling challenging disciplinary problems in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and creative arts.

The following ISGRJ faculty members were honored with a Research on Social and Racial Justice Award: Senior Faculty Fellow Keith Green, Black Bodies, Black Health Project Steering Committee member Luis Rivera, Scarlet & Black Research Center Scholar Kendra Boyd. Congratulations also to the faculty leaders of the Insurgent Intersections project, Kim Butler, Akissi Britton and Shantee Rosado from Africana Studies, for receiving a Collaborative Multidisciplinary Award!

We're thrilled to announce the new digital publication, and immersive story of our ISGRJ and sponsored research projects!

These projects and initiatives housed administratively at or affiliated with ISGRJ contribute to the Institute’s overall direction and vision regarding the need for a humanistic, interdisciplinary, systems approach to examining racialization and racism.

The Institute works together with primary investigators to support, encourage, advise on, and help generate collaborative, interdisciplinary, research projects designed by ISGRJ’s Campus Directors and other Rutgers faculty. These projects include ISGRJ signature research projects, Rutgers research initiatives and research partnerships.