Racial Justice Fellows work on research projects that connect domestic civil rights to global human rights frameworks.
Promoting racial and economic equity for all.
Confronting the enduring legacy of racism by fostering collaboration and amplifying contemporary movements for social change.
While problems of police brutality and broader challenges of systemic racism are ingrained in the nation’s DNA, more recent phenomena—such as the use of technology to document said violence, the rise of social movements and digital campaigns to advocate for Black lives, and the growth of intersectionality in civil society amongst immigrant rights, queer liberation, and racial justice movements—have catapulted these issues to the fore.
As we continue the centuries-long journey of tackling racial injustice in the United States, the Carr-Ryan Center’s Racial Justice program focuses on strengthening discourse connecting domestic civil rights to global human rights frameworks, and brings together faculty, fellows, students, and the broader University community to collaborate.
The Racial Justice Program brings together the Racial Justice Fellowship, which selects a cohort of fellows each academic year to perform research on subjects that relate to civil and human rights. The Carr-Ryan Center also hosts numerous events and webinars as part of the Racial Justice Program, including The Struggle for Black Lives series, The Fierce Urgency of Now series, and the Social Justice Leaders series.
The Global Anti-Blackness and the Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Symposium consisted of several panels covering the status of global racism and anti-Blackness in the twenty-first century, considering questions about the modern legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, reparative justice, the work of international organizations to improve civil rights, and more.
Leadership
Desmond Ang, Associate Professor of Public Policy at HKS, is the faculty lead of the Racial Justice Fellowship. His research examines the causes and consequences of racial discrimination and has been published in leading journals including American Economic Review, American Political Science Review, and Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Our Racial Justice Fellows
Max Felker-Kantor
Max Felker-Kantor
Associate professor in the Department of African American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jennie Ikuta
Jennie Ikuta
Associate Professor of Political Theory, University of Missouri-Columbia
Antonio Ingram II
Antonio Ingram II
Senior Counsel, Legal Defense Fund
Heather Ann Thompson
Heather Ann Thompson
Historian, University of Michigan; Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft-prize winning author of "Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy"
The Racial Justice Fellowship