Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, WUSTL

We’re back! 👋

CRE²’s social media pages are active again, and we’re excited to reconnect as we begin a new semester!

Stay connected with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook for updates about upcoming events, opportunities, community highlights, and other updates throughout the semester.

Our social media pages will be taking a brief break in July and early August.

Please note that we will not be posting updates or monitoring direct messages here during this time.

You can still easily reach us through our website: https://cre2.wustl.edu/

Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to connecting with you back here in August.

Upcoming Fall 2026 Courses: Take a look at some of the race, and ethnicity related courses that will be taught by CRE² faculty affiliates.

In “Race and Ethnicity in the Middle East and North Africa,” Assistant Professor Mona Kareem Husain and students will study how peoples of the region have debated issues of race and racialization, from the Abbasid era to the contemporary moment. The course will highlight the legibility and urgency of race as an analytics in Middle East studies. In considering pre-modern and modern conceptions and experiences of race and ethnicity across the region, the class will understand how race and ethnicity have functioned as a technology of power and hierarchization, and their intersectional role in forming categories of caste, nationality, or even gender and sexuality.

The engaged city community fellow Damon Davis is featured in St. Louis Magazine for The Lost Tapes Archive, a digital project preserving the art, music, media, and creative history of Cherokee Street and South St. Louis from 2010–2025.

Developed through the Engaged City Fellowship—a collaboration between CRE², the Sam Fox School’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice, and the Center for the Humanities at WashU—the project uses cultural asset mapping to document the people, places, and creative communities that have shaped the region's cultural landscape.

To submit to the archive click here: https://form.jotform.com/261326195375057?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio

Damon Davis seeks to capture the magic of a moment with The Lost Tapes Archive The vibrance and creative energy of Cherokee Street is a hard thing to try to capture, but local artist Damon Davis is giving it his best shot with a new project entitled The Lost Tapes Archive. Produced as a result of Davis’ role as an Engaged City Community Fellow through Washington University, ...

Congratulations to former CRE² interim director Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in WashU Arts & Sciences, who has been nominated for a 2026 Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportwriting.

Early nominated for Jenkins sportswriting medal Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in WashU Arts & Sciences, has been nominated for a 2026 Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportwriting.

Follow along with as we share snapshots of the Center, our work, and the people and ideas that shape our community.

CRE² organizes its work around four strategic pillars: St. Louis Area-Based Research & Partnerships, Health Access & Outcomes, Migration, Immigration & Refugees, and Cultural Memory, History & Preservation. These pillars guide the Center’s research, collaborations, and community engagement.

Learn more about these focus areas and the kinds of work they support: https://cre2.wustl.edu/about-cre2/pillars-and-initiatives/

Upcoming Fall 2026 Courses: Take a look at some of the race, and ethnicity related courses that will be taught by CRE² faculty affiliates.

In “Topics in 20th Century and Later Literature (Black Performance Studies)”, Associate Professor Julius B. Fleming will examine how Black performance has shaped—and challenged—understandings of race, gender, sexuality, and social identity across time. Through texts and performances spanning slave narratives, civil rights activism, theater, and hip hop, students will explore the role of embodiment, audience, and artistic expression in the making of Black cultural and political life.

CRE² faculty affiliate Seanna Leath and graduate student affiliate SynClair Arthur’s co-led project “Black Children’s Joy and Educational Justice: A Portraiture Study on Effectiveness of a School District’s Strategic Plan around Antiracism and Wellbeing” is featured in the Ampersand article “Inside the WashU partnership examining the power of Black joy in schools.”

The article explores how Leath and Arthur, in partnership with the School District of University City, are examining the role of joy, belonging, and emotional well-being in supporting Black students’ educational experiences. Through interviews, artwork, and community-engaged research, the project centers children’s voices while exploring how schools can nurture environments where Black youth feel connected, valued, and supported.

Read the article:

Inside the WashU partnership examining the power of Black joy in schools Seanna Leath and the School District of University City are exploring how Black children’s joy, well-being, and racial equity can strengthen educational outcomes.

Follow along with as we share snapshots of the Center, our work, our people and the ideas that shape our community.

We’re beginning with a look at our origins. In 2015, university leaders convened a commission to consider how WashU could deepen its engagement. One result was the creation of a research center dedicated to the study of race and ethnicity—an idea that became CRE², launched in 2020.

To learn more about our history, initiatives, events, and community engagement, visit our website and connect with us online to explore opportunities on how to get involved. https://cre2.wustl.edu/

CRE² Executive Director, Dr. Dwight A. McBride , responds to the recent Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences.

Read his response:

The Question Haunting the Vanderbilt/Wash U Report (opinion) A new report criticizes a turn toward politicized scholarship in the humanities. But could it be that a more diverse academy is asking different questions?