APPLY NOW: Students Fellows Program
Student Fellows Program 2022-2023
CSRD student fellows expand the Center's range of research and engagement across UT's campus and within the local community. Through exploration for independent projects, fellows aid in creating a database of relevant research to serve as a launchpad for further social-justice-oriented work.
This academic year-long fellowship pairs research skills development and hands-on research. Mentored by CSRD Faculty Fellows, and CSRD team members, student fellows will conduct research on the intersections of race, democracy, and social justice. In addition, student fellows participate in CSRD events and act as ambassadors on behalf of the CSRD, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and The University of Texas at Austin.
How to Apply
The CSRD accepts applications from undergraduate and graduate students interested in becoming a CSRD Student Fellows for the 2022-2023 academic year. Candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria and complete the online application here.
Freedom & Diversity of Expression with Hiram Chodosh
Hiram Chodosh on Freedom and Diversity of Expression – William C. Powers Jr. Speaker Series
The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and the LBJ School’s Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is excited to welcome Hiram Chodosh, president of Claremont McKenna College, to the LBJ School of Public Affairs for a special dialogue with CSRD’s founding director, Peniel Joseph, in 2022's first William C. Powers Jr. Speaker Series event.
When: Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at 5:30 PM CT
Where: Bass Lecture Hall, LBJ School of Public Affairs
RSVP & Learn More: bit.ly/strengthdemexpression
About Hiram Chodosh
Hiram Chodosh is the fifth president of Claremont McKenna College (CMC), a highly selective liberal arts college with a distinctive leadership mission.
A graduate of Wesleyan University and Yale Law School, and a renowned scholar with institutional justice reform experience in over a dozen countries, President Chodosh was recognized as one of the 25 most influential legal educators in the country in 2013 and received the Gandhi Peace Award in 2011.
Under President Chodosh’s leadership, CMC has developed full set of powerfully integrated programs. The Student Imperative, The Soll Center for Student Opportunity, The Kravis Opportunity Fund, and many others remove financial and social barriers to the expansion of student opportunities. Nationally recognized for sustained success, CMC has nearly doubled its enrollment of Pell-eligible students and nearly tripled the enrollment of students who are first in their families to attend college, with outstanding post-graduate success and achievement in social mobility.
The Open Academy reinforces commitments to freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and effective dialogue, in partnership with The Presidential Initiative on Anti-Racism and the Black Experience in America, the CARE Center, the four-time world champion Model UN team, and other student programs.
CMC ranks 1st in the nation in freedom of speech, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and was recognized by the Heterodox Academy with the 2019 institutional excellence award in open inquiry.
About The William C. Powers Jr. Speaker Series
Honoring the memory of former UT President William C. Powers, Jr., this speaker series invites thought leaders to present research in American politics and public policy in reflection of his commitment to diversity and inclusion. The series is sponsored by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and organized by the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy team and its director, Dr. Peniel Joseph, Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values.
About Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues at the LBJ School
The Strengthening Democracy event series consists of conversations at the LBJ School featuring thought leaders, scholars, and activists from a wide variety of backgrounds who will offer insight, analysis, and provocation regarding the challenges and opportunities facing our democracy now and in the future. Our intention is to introduce our community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to a series of speakers who can challenge us to grow in new and unexpected ways.
We believe that Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues preserves freedom for all people to enter the civic arena in ways that cultivate respectful, constructive, and thought-provoking dialogue and debate that will inspire our community to better construct policy solutions in today’s age.
Dec. 13, 2021 — LBJ School establishes Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI), names leadership
The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin has established a new department dedicated to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI), naming Dr. Peniel Joseph and Estevan Delgado JEDI's inaugural associate dean and director, respectively. Their appointments begin in January 2022.
Joseph will serve on the dean's executive leadership team in order to amplify the LBJ School's commitments to core values of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion along three key areas: composition, culture and curriculum. His experience as the founding director of UT's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) will play a critical role in advancing several strategic priorities, including teaching a diverse student body, attracting and retaining diverse faculty, and refining curriculum and pedagogical innovations that better enable students to study, recognize and reduce discrimination and inequity.
Jun. 19, 2021 — Juneteenth Freedom Summit: New Birth of American Freedom
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.
May 25, 2021 – Upholding the Status Quo: The Model Minority Myth and its Role in the U.S.
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.
April 14, 2021 – Creating Social Change: Avenues for Advocacy
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.
April 7, 2021 — Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America with Michael Eric Dyson
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.
Jan. 25, 2021 — The Path to Racial Equity: How Did We Get Here?
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.
Jan. 18, 2021 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day discussion of The Sword and the Shield with Dr. Peniel Joseph
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.
