center for the study of race and race relations · few years have proven that new beginnings can...

C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F R A C E A N D R A C E R E L A T I O N S

U N I V E R S I T Y O F F L O R I D A L E V I N C O L L E G E O F L A W

This is an exciting time for the Center for the Study of Race and Race

Relations. Brick by brick, we’re laying the foundation for a premier

academic research and resource institute on race and race relations. The past

few years have proven that new beginnings can create new possibilities. Our

plate has been full balancing the goals of building the Center’s infrastruc-

ture, initiating programs and activities, and setting our long-term goals.

All of our projects are designed to highlight, investigate and facilitate the

study of the central role race plays in the academic arena and within society

at large. The Center’s work has included a range of activities, including

race conversations with students, a conference for law professors on race

and legal education, three annual lectures by race law scholars, and the

Faculty Reading Initiative (in collaboration with the University of Florida

President’s Office). The Center also publishes and disseminates materials

designed to assist those who study, teach, and write about race.

Housed at UF’s Levin College of Law, the work of the Race Center

is carried out by a number of groups: an ad hoc advisory board of UF

faculty; law school, graduate and undergraduate student workers; staff; and

community members.

At the core of our work is the belief that race matters. We strive to put the

difficult, perplexing, and invigorating questions about race on the table — so

that they can be shorn of the silence that surrounds them. Studying race

involves all of us. Engaging in this work is a worthwhile challenge. Please

join us.

Dr. Katheryn Russell-BrownDirector, Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations & Professor of Law

“Engaging in this work is a worthwhile challenge.”

Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations

Center HistoryThe Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) is the brainchild of two UF law professors, Sharon Rush and Kenneth Nunn. Their “radical” idea, according to Professor Rush, was to “place race on the table as a legitimate academic exercise.” In 1996 the pair worked with a small group of faculty interested in creat-ing a premier race Center. The proposal was drafted and presented to the administration. In the spring of 1998, the new Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations was born.

Mission The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations is committed to de-stigmatizing race in America. With the objective of fostering communities of dialogue, the Center embraces historically and empirically based thinking, talking, teaching and writing on race, and cre-ates and supports programs designed to enhance race-related curriculum development for faculty, staff and students in collegiate and professional schools. Of the five U.S. law schools with race centers, the CSRRR is uniquely focused on curriculum development.

VisionThe Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations is an academic research and resource center. The Center’s mis-sion is met through the work of various groups engaged in a wide range of activities. This work includes:

• Producing, supporting and highlighting race-related scholarship within and beyond the UF community.

• Gathering, analyzing and sharing historical and con-temporary knowledge about race and race relations.

• Developing and supporting — through teaching, research, writing and workshops — race-related cur-ricula for collegiate and professional schools.

• Fostering non-stigmatizing ways of discussing issues of race and ethnicity, involving African Americans, Latinos/as, American Indians, Asian Americans and Whites.

Professors Sharon Rush and Kenneth Nunn, CSRRR Co-Founders

“We wanted the Center to be a place where race could be discussed and solutions offered to keep race on the table as a legitimate academic exercise.”

– Sharon Rush Irving Cypen Professor of Law

“To some degree, people did not have a sophisticated understanding of the information that was available on questions of race. We wanted to begin to change that. We wanted this institution to begin to converse about race in a serious way.”

– Kenneth NunnProfessor of Law

CE

NT

ER

FO

R T

HE

ST

UD

Y O

F R

AC

E A

ND

RA

CE

RE

LA

TIO

NS

2 W W W . L A W . U F L . E D U / C E N T E R S / C S R R R

Programs and Activities

Faculty Reading InitiativeIn September 2004, the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations and University of Florida Office of the President sponsored the Faculty Reading Initiative (FRI). The FRI was modeled after the "freshman assigned text" concept, but took the idea in a new direction. UF's 4,000 faculty were asked to focus on a single point of reference from which to facilitate discussion and learning about race. The text for the FRI was Dr. Beverly Tatum’s book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. This provocative work features a frank and wide-rang-ing evaluation of race, racial identity and race relations. Dr. Tatum, noted author, researcher, clinical psycholo-gist and ninth president of Spelman College, gave the

keynote address at the symposium cumulating the sum-mer-long reading initiative. Held as part of UF President J. Bernard Machen’s inauguration celebration, the FRI symposium drew 400-plus participants from UF and the Gainesville community for a spirited discussion of race.

Race and Law Curriculum Workshop2005 Inaugural Conference, Gainesville, Florida

The Race and Law Curriculum Workshop is an ongoing CSRRR program designed to provide a small group of participants with an extraordinary opportunity to net-work, exchange ideas, discuss issues and problems, and share successes with colleagues who have an interest and commitment to integrating race into the law school curriculum.

The 2005 inaugural meeting in Gainesville, Florida, brought together race scholars from across the nation. Led by some of the nation’s leading race scholars, con-ference panels addressed:

• The place of race in the law school curriculum

• Race in required and elective courses

• Race and pedagogy

• The consequences of teaching race

Speakers at the workshop included:

• Keith Aoki (University of Oregon)• Alfred Brophy (University of Alabama)• John O. Calmore (University of North Carolina)• Kim Forde-Mazrui (University of Virginia)• Tanya Hernandez (Rutgers, Newark)• Sherrilyn Ifi ll (University of Maryland)• Angela Mae Kupenda (Mississippi College)

THE CENTER OFFERS INNOVATIVE AND COMPELLING INITIATIVES, WORKSHOPS, LECTURES AND MORE ON ISSUES RELATED TO RACE AND RACE RELATIONS

During the Faculty Reading Initiative, Dr. Tatum challenged audience members to reconsider their preconceived notions about race relations and to talk openly about race issues. “There’s too much ‘shhh-ing’ going on,” Tatum said as she demonstrated the level of discomfort many people have with discussing race relations.

continued on next page

C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F R A C E A N D R A C E R E L A T I O N S 3

A symposium held during the Faculty Reading Initiative featured a moderated discussion among a dozen faculty members, rep-resenting UF colleges as diverse as Medicine, Fine Arts, and Design, Construction and Planning, who shared their thoughts on Tatum’s book and insights into issues of race and race relations in their lives, their teaching, on campus, and in the Gainesville community.

• Cynthia Lee (George Washington University)• Margaret Montoya (University of New Mexico)

• john powell (Ohio State)

• Gerald Torres (University of Texas)

• David Troutt (Rutgers University)• Gloria Valencia-Weber (University of New

Mexico)

RLCW Conference Proceedings and papers will be available Spring 2006. Keynotes speeches from David Troutt (Rutgers University) and Gerald Torres are available on the Center's website.

Plans are underway for the second Race and Law Curriculum Workshop to be held in 2008 in Gainesville, Florida.

Spring Lecture Series

The goal of the Spring Lecture Series is to invite lead-

ing scholars and educators on race to present their research to the law school and the UF community. It is also designed to showcase the diversity of scholarship on race.

The Center held its first Spring Lecture in April 2004. Professor Paul Butler of George Washington University Law School presented his article, “Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment,”

The 2005 CSRRR Race and Law Curriculum Workshop

“Race is a bizarre, incoherent concept that has little scientific meaning and extraordinary social meaning. How could you not be interested in it?” — Professor Paul Butler

(center, with Dean Robert Jerry, former UF Provost David Colburn, CSRRR Director Katheryn Russell-Brown and Assistant Director Melissa Bamba)

continued from page 2

continued on next page

CE

NT

ER

FO

R T

HE

ST

UD

Y O

F R

AC

E A

ND

RA

CE

RE

LA

TIO

NS


which examines the way punishment and criminal justice issues are treated in hip-hop culture and the alternative vision for punishment the community might embrace. The second CSRRR Spring Lecture held in April 2005 featured Professor Paul Finkelman of the University of Tulsa College of Law, who presented “Affirmative Action for the Master Class: Understanding the Proslavery Constitution and Its Implications for 21st Century America.” Through an analysis of the historical period leading up to the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, Professor Finkelman laid bare the hidden and not-so-hidden ways in which the issue of slavery was central to nearly every aspect of the drafting of the Constitution.

BEYOND BROWN: Children, Race and EducationThe Beyond Brown: Children, Race and Education Conference marked the 50th anniversary of the land-mark case of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Supreme Court held that segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The two-day conference, which attracted legal scholars, community activists, educators and students, explored the history

and legacy of Brown and its implications for children, educators, and educational policy today. The Brown Conference was co-sponsored by the CSRRR and Center on Children and Families and supported by the Institute for Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation (ICARE) at the University of Florida and the UF College of Education.

Civil Rights activist and author Constance Curry (second from left, with CSRRR Director Katheryn Russell Brown, Dean Robert Jerry and Center for Children and Families Director Barbara Bennett Woodhouse) gave the opening night keynote address at the Beyond Brown Conference.

“In order to fully understand modern race relations in the United States, we must first understand that we started off in the wrong direction, on the wrong foot and to protect the wrong institutions.”

– Professor Paul Finkelman, University of Tulsa College of Law

continued from page 3


Race Conversations With Law StudentsIn an effort to encourage open dia-logue on race and race-related top-ics, the Race Center has sponsored a series of race conversations with law students. Representatives from various student organizations at the Levin College of Law were invited to meet and talk informally about race. Over lunch, students discussed a range of ideas and topics, including race relations among students at the law school, racial diversity at the law school, and how to improve race rela-tions and the racial climate across the UF campus.

The Yegelwel FellowshipThe Yegelwel Fellowship supports student research and scholarship toward the goal of reducing crime motivated by hate, prejudice, or ste-reotyping. A generous gift from UF Law alumnus Evan Yegelwel (class of 1980) has made this fellowship possible. Mr. Yegelwel is a partner in the Jacksonville, Florida law firm of Brown, Terrell, Hogan, Ellis, McClamma, and Yegelwel.

O P P O R T U N I T I E S F O R S T U D E N T S

“I think the most valuable experience I had as a Yegelwel Fellow was attending the Race and Law Curriculum Workshop. Hearing all of the different professors from different schools in different parts of the country speak about how race can be such an integral part of the law school curriculum was fascinating. My perception of all of my classes has completely changed. I have a heightened awareness, that I think is essential, of how each case, law or rule is affected by race, and how these in turn may affect current race relations.”

– Megan Saillant, 2004-05 Yegelwel Fellow

Third-year law student Megan Saillant (left) was the 2004-2005 recipient of the Yegelwel Fellowship. Megan gradu-ated from Indiana University in 2001 with a degree in Policy Studies, served as an Americorps VISTA in Denver and Atlanta, and was an investigator with the Montgomery County Public Defender’s office in Rockville, Maryland. As a VISTA intern, she helped students in schools in low-income communities with issues relating to literacy and college prepared-ness. Megan, who plans to pursue a career in civil rights or criminal law, examined in her fellowship paper the implications of making political affiliation a protected class under current hate crime laws.


CE

NT

ER

FO

R T

HE

ST

UD

Y O

F R

AC

E A

ND

RA

CE

RE

LA

TIO

NS


Katheryn Russell-Brown, DirectorProfessor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations Dr. Katheryn Russell-Brown received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, her law degree from the University of California Hastings Law School, and her Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Russell-Brown’s teaching, research and writ-ing have been in the areas of criminal law, sociol-ogy of law, and race and crime. Her 1994 article, “The Constitutionality of Jury Override in Alabama Death Penalty Cases,” published in the Alabama Law Review, was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Harris v. Alabama, 513 U.S. 504 (1995).

She is the author of “Black Protectionism as a Civil Rights Strategy” 53 Buffalo Law Review 1 (2005) and the book, Protecting Our Own: Race, Crime and African Americans (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006). She also is the author of two books published by New York University Press: The Color of Crime (1998) and Underground Codes: Race, Crime, and Related Fires (2004). She also co-edited Petit Apartheid in the U.S. Criminal Justice System (with Dragan Milovanovic) in 2001 (Carolina Academic Press) and has published numerous other journal articles and book chapters.

Professor Russell-Brown taught criminology at the University of Maryland for 11 years. She has also taught at Howard University and Alabama State University and worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center as a legal intern.

Melissa I. Bamba, Assistant DirectorAssistant Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations Melissa Bamba received her under-graduate degree from Temple University, her paralegal certificate from Widener University and her Master of Arts degree in criminol-ogy and criminal justice from the University of Maryland.

Her professional experience extends over all stages of the research process and in applied settings. She was respon-sible for coordinating a biomedical research project at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the U.S. Veteran’s Administration Hospital. She also worked with the George Washington University Biostatistics Center on a National Institutes of Health-sponsored clini-cal trial, ensuring quality control and patient safety.

Ms. Bamba also has worked extensively in social sci-ence research. From 1998 to 2000 she worked as a Research Associate with the National Academy of Science/National Research Council’s Committee on Law and Justice. During her tenure she worked with expert panels assembled to study juvenile delinquency, patho-logical gambling, policing and illegal drugs. Prior to this she worked in a private consulting firm for clients such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy (the “Drug Czar’s” office), the National Institute of Justice, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism.

Her research interests revolve around issues of identity and political behavior.

CSRRR Faculty and StaffCENTER FACULTY AND STAFF WORK WITH COLLEAGUES ON CAMPUS AND ACROSS THE NATION TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE AND INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

Dr. Katheryn Russell-Brown

Melissa Bamba


Jonathan Cohen Associate Professor of Law

Nancy E. Dowd Professor of Law

Stephanie Evans African-American Studies and Center for Women’s Studies and Gender ResearchAssistant Professor

Berta E. Hernandez-Truyol Professor of Law

Michelle S. Jacobs Professor of Law

Lonn Lanza-Kaduce Professor of Sociology and Criminology

Michael LeslieAssociate Professor of Telecommunication

Pedro Malavet Professor of Law

Terry Mills Associate Professor of SociologyAssociate Dean for Minority Affairs

Kenneth B. Nunn Professor of Law

Juan Perea Professor of Law

Alexis R. Piquero Professor of Criminology

Sharon Elizabeth Rush Professor of Law

C E N T E R F A C U L T Y A F F I L I A T E S

“Even though I began working at the Race Center as someone who had been interested in issues of race for several years, perhaps the most valuable thing I have learned through work-ing there is how to talk about these issues with people of color openly, honestly and without fear. I have learned to ask questions and to seek answers.”— Jill Mahler, former

CSRRR Research Assistant

“The Race Center initiates scholarly awareness, analysis and exploration of race and racial issues that might arise on a college campus, in academia and in every day life.”— Joseph Dieuvil, CSRRR Student Assistant

Visiting Scholar/Soros Justice Fellow

2004 Visiting Scholar/Soros Justice Fellow Olufunke Grace Bankole earned a B.A. in Government from Cornell University in 2001 and graduated Harvard Law School in 2004. After graduation she spent a year in New Orleans develop-ing a project aimed at building the advocacy skills of families of at-risk and incarcerated youth. As a CSRRR fellow, she worked closely with community organizations and the College's Center on Children and Families on issues of juvenile incarceration and family empowerment.

The Visiting Scholar/Soros Justice Fellow assists the CSRRR in carrying out its overall mission of destig-matizing race and fostering communities of dialogue on race-related issues.

Olufunke Grace Bankole


CE

NT

ER

FO

R T

HE

ST

UD

Y O

F R

AC

E A

ND

RA

CE

RE

LA

TIO

NS


Publications & OutreachCONNECTIONS NewsletterCONNECTIONS is the official newsletter of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. The newsletter is published annually in the spring and is designed to keep CSRRR friends and the University of Florida community informed of the Center’s activities and programs, highlight the work of race scholars locally and around the country and provide a forum for discussion of current issues and controversies.

The Winter 2006 edition of CONNECTIONS is available on the CSRRR website at www.law.ufl.edu/centers/csrrr/. If you would like your name added to the mailing list to receive CONNECTIONS, e-mail the Race Center at [email protected].

Future Programs, Activitiesand PublicationsConference Proceedings from the Inaugural Race and Law Curriculum Workshop, 2005

Contact CSRRR for copies.

Race and Law Curriculum Workshop II (2008)

The Center will convene its second Race and Law Curriculum Workshop in 2008. The workshop enables participants to network, exchange ideas, discuss issues and problems, and share successes with colleagues who

share their commitment to integrate race into the law school curriculum.

History Project

The history project will document and provide a review and analysis of the history of race at the University of Florida, the law school, and the city of Gainesville. The report will survey this history from the time of the civil rights move-ment’s influence on race relations in Gainesville, through the affirmative action battle that culminated in the Supreme Court case of Grutter v. Bollinger.

The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations works with faculty and students to spotlight and encourage conver-sations about many issues related to race.

“Diversity and racial issues are important to all of us. We are very proud that the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations — under the dedicated leadership of Director Dr. Katheryn Russell-Brown and Assistant Director Melissa Bamba and through its interdisciplinary, research-based, academic mission — plays a key role in focusing the attention of others on how we can work together to address these issues.”

– Robert Jerry, Dean, Levin College of Law

You can help the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations by: • E-mailing a race-related topic that is important to you to [email protected]

• Helping out with the Center’s programs and activities

• Becoming a Center affiliate

• Letting us know about your work or your group’s work as it pertains to race

• Recommending a book for discussion

• Making a donation

Please join us in our efforts to identify and address the many difficult but important issues related to race and curriculum development. We look forward to working with you. We welcome your questions and comments.

H O W C A N Y O U H E L P ?

www.law.ufl.edu/centers/csrrrE-mail: [email protected]: 352-273-0614 Fax: 352-392-3005

C O N T A C T I N F O R M A T I O N

Levin College of Law Center for the Study of Race and Race RelationsP.O. Box 117625Gainesville, FL 32611-7625

center for the study of race and race relations · few years have proven that new beginnings can...

Documents