About
Mission
Our mission is to challenge systemic racism and to advance racial equality through research, education, and community empowerment.
Led by Notre Dame's College of Arts and Letters with additional support from the Office of the Provost, the Initiative on Race and Resilience serves as the site at which a community of scholars, teachers, students, artists, and community organizers gathers to develop and advance their respective projects, exchange ideas, and celebrate the expressive cultures of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
Global in scope and comparative and interdisciplinary in critical approach, the Initiative on Race and Resilience promotes multiracial collaboration, qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and inclusive pedagogy.
Equally as important, the Initiative embraces the arts as a means to examine race more substantively and thus to attend to the forms of oppression it produces as well as the identities and forms or resistance it enables.
Read more about the history and purpose of this new Initiative in a letter from our director, Professor Mark Sanders.
Areas of Focus
The Initiative on Race organizes its work around three foci:
2025 IRR and ILS Launch University-Wide Research Themes
The Initiative on Race and Resilience and the Institute for Latino Studies proudly announce a collaboration and the launch of two intensive, interdisciplinary research themes that align with Notre Dame’s Strategic Framework amplifying the strength of the humanities and arts programs as well as those that interrogate what democratic governance is in a multiracial and multicultural society. So, too, will we investigate the intertwining of race, class, and poverty to address the racial wealth gap and invest in solutions and partnerships that tackle generational oppression.
IRR and ILS will invest in the critical inquiry around these two areas by amplifying the following and related questions through research grants of up to $5,000. Grants are available to affiliate graduate students and faculty members. Grants and affiliations are open to all university schools and divisions. Apply here to apply to be an affiliate.