After its establishment in the spring of 2012, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy is officially being launched this semester.
The CSRD is largely an outgrowth and expansion of the annual Barack Obama and American Democracy conference , hosted alternately by Arizona State University and Tufts since 2010, according to Professor of History and CSRD founder Peniel Joesph.
The proposal for the center really talked about making it a research center that would serve as a clearinghouse for research-based and intellectually driven conversation about issues of race and democracy ... at the local, national [and] international levels," Joseph said.
The center's mission is to promote engaged research, scholarship and discussion with a focus on the ways that issues of race and democracy impact the lives of global citizens. Elissa Bowling, a member of the CSRD working group, explained how the center is different from past discussions about race on campus.
"Being very passionate about race relations is very important, but we are putting an intellectual side to it," Bowling, a junior, said. "It's more of an, 'okay, it's great that you feel that way, but why do you feel that way
