Past Events

This panel highlights the strength and diversity of UT faculty research in areas related to Kwame Brathwaite’s work, including Black Power studies, African diasporic fashion and self-presentation, and Black feminism. UT faculty members Peniel E. Joseph, Lyndon K. Gill, and Lisa B. Thompson, with special guest Kwame S. Brathwaite, discuss the historic and cultural contexts of Brathwaite’s photography. This event is organized in partnership with the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, in conjunction with the exhibition "Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite."

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin held the inaugural Juneteenth Freedom Summit on June 19, 2021. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, when, on June 19, 1865, over two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, federal troops informed enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, of their freedom. This online event moderated by Dr. Peniel Joseph, the CSRD's founding director, is a celebration of Juneteenth as a New Birth of American Freedom whose architects included formerly enslaved Black women and men who helped to remake conceptions of race, democracy, and citizenship. Leading voices explored why Juneteenth matters now, in this season of national political awakening around racial justice and equity, more than ever. The event featured a keynote lecture by Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed on the meaning of Juneteenth and lightning round discussions on wealth, education and housing equity with distinguished local leaders.

Notley Tide and University of Texas at Austin's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy partnered on a virtual community conversation featuring panelists Dr. Eric Tang (Associate Professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department and director of the Center for Asian American Studies), Dr. Peniel Joseph (Founding Director of CSRD), Elise Hu (Ted Talks Daily, NPR), and moderated by Minh Vu (Director of Strategic Programs, Notley). The panelists explored how the Model Minority Myth of Asian Americans has been used to uphold the status quo in the U.S. and how it has continued to play out in society today, its effects on the Asian American community as well as other communities of color, and how we can dismantle it to advance racial justice.

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy's Student Fellows Program is an opportunity for both undergraduate and graduate students to engage in research at the intersection of civil rights, race, and democracy. Under the guidance of the CSRD team and faculty fellows, student fellows develop research projects on a topic of their choice that aligns with CSRD's mission. The program culminates in the CSRD Student Fellows Research Symposium, where students share their findings with the UT and greater Austin community. The 2020–21 cohort worked diligently during the pandemic to create impactful social justice research for the inaugural symposium. Their dedication is representative of the academic excellence espoused at the CSRD, the LBJ School, and The University of Texas at Austin.

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, UT Austin University Housing and Dining, and Catalyst Living Learning Community joined forces to discuss ways to be an effective advocate and resources for authentic allyship. This session featured panelists CSRD Director Dr. Peniel Joseph and Dr. Tracie Lowe, Assistant Director of Assessment for the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis (IUPRA), and was moderated by Dr. Brandon Jones, Associate Director for Student Learning and Development.

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy proudly presents Michael Eric Dyson, celebrated professor, writer, preacher, lecturer and media personality. He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Princeton, and has taught at many universities, including Brown, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia, DePaul, the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown. Dyson is currently the Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, and Centennial Professor at Vanderbilt University. He has written over 20 books including New York Times bestsellers The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America; and Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America. His latest book, Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, was heralded as Amazon's Bestselling Book for 2020. Dyson is an American Book Award recipient and a two-time winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Non-Fiction. He has served for the last 30 years as a commentator, host, and analyst on NPR's "Morning Edition," "The Takeaway" and "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "Real Time with Bill Maher," MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.

What is the historical context for the issues of race our country currently faces? What is at the root of the racial injustice that contradicts our nation’s ideals and continues to hold us back from our promise? Dr. Peniel Joseph, Professor of Public Affairs and Founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, LBJ School of Public Affairs chats with Leslie Wingo, President & CEO of Sanders\Wingo in the LBJ Library's limited series.

The LBJ School, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), the LBJ Foundation, BookPeople and Huston-Tillotson University presented a special program to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Peniel Joseph, LBJ School professor and CSRD director, discussed his critically acclaimed book, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. with Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, President and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University, on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Named a TIME 100 must-read book of 2020, one of Financial Times's Best Books of 2020: Politics, a TLS Book of the Year and among the PEN America Awards Longlists, this dual biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King upends longstanding preconceptions to transform our understanding of the 20th century's most iconic leaders.

The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy proudly features Tressie McMillan Cottom in the William C. Powers, Jr. Speaker Series. Dr. Cottom is the New York Times bestselling author of Thick. And Other Essays (National Book Award Finalist), co-host of the podcast "Hear to Slay" with Roxanne Gay, a 2020 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, a senior faculty researcher with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, and a faculty affiliate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Dr. Peniel Joseph discusses the significance of active citizenship at a time of racial reckoning with Ambassador Ron Kirk, Senior Of Counsel in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Dallas and Washington, DC offices and former Dallas mayor who served as the United States Trade Representative in President Barack Obama's Cabinet.