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Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice
Rutgers Diversity

Educational Justice: Grants and Projects

Current Grants and Projects

In 20212025, campus directors are supporting a number of intellectual and institutional research projects designed to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and justice in academia and other educational settings.

Ready to Launch: Understanding the Experiences of the Transition to University and to Adulthood Among Under-resourced Students of Color

Led by Project Co-Director Paul Boxer (Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University-Newark), this project examines the transition from high school to university for first-year students entering Rutgers-Newark. Interviews will be conducted with 100 students and one caregiver about their experiences during this transition. The project focuses on lived experiences of social and financial continuity and change, and the nature of support provided by families, to understand how “launching” prepares students for success.

Conversation Series: Alternative Approaches to Music Teaching and Learning

The “Conversation Series” involves readings centered on race, equity, access, and retention. Five guest speakers will lead in-class conversations on their research and personal dispositions to diversity, equity and inclusion. The aim is to challenge graduate students, who are also in-service music educators to explore perspectives from diverse scholarship and broaden their views on why music education matters. Led by Marjoris Regus, Asst. Prof. of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. 

Clemente Veterans’ Initiative (CVI) Newark is a free college course in the humanities that explores themes of war and reconciliation through philosophy, literature, art and US history, and writing. CVI Newark is based on the idea that the insights and skills offered by studying the humanities can provide us with crucial tools for gaining control over our lives and becoming more engaged in our communities. Led by Charity Anderson, Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at RutgersNewark.

Led by John Hulme, Writers House, English, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; John Keller, coLAB Arts / Mason Gross, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; Chris Rasmussen, History, Fairleigh Dickinson University; Dan Swern, coLAB Arts / Mason Gross, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; Andrew Urban, American Studies, Rutgers University-New Brunswick; Dara Walker, African American Studies, History, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Pennsylvania State University 

Led by Lacey Hunter and Christina Strasburger (Rutgers University-Newark), TAE is an initiative organized through the collaboration of educators, scholars, and advocates dedicated to social justice and inclusivity. TAE’s educational programming brings students, teachers, scholars, community organizers, and researchers together to promote sustainable inclusivity in classrooms everywhere. Our workshops aim to help educators develop pedagogical methods that support safe environments for all learners

Insurgent Intersections: Combating Global Anti-Blackness is a multi-year project of the Department of Africana Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick exploring how the discipline informs global, intersectional struggles against anti-Blackness. We are also examining how the interventions of Africana Studies intersect with approaches to anti-Blackness from other academic disciplines. Led by Kim Butler, Akissi Britton, and Shantee Rosado, School of Arts and Sciences, Africana Studies, RutgersNew Brunswick

AIR Collaborative’s mission is to pursue creative placemaking to foster spatial justice through multidisciplinary research and curricular agendas that benefit and strengthen the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus and surrounding local communities. Led by Anette Freytag, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, RutgersNew Brunswick; Julia Ritter, Mason Gross School of the Arts, RutgersNew Brunswick; Arts Integrated Research (AIR) Collaborative.