Director's Welcome Message

Dear CCSRE community,

Nearly 30 years ago, our first Executive Director, the late Dorothy Steele, reminded us that, “you have to keep trying to get people to stay together.” Today, as the boundaries between groups thicken and our society becomes more polarized than ever, her words are as true as ever.

As CCSRE’s new Director, I feel honored and humbled by the trust placed in me to guide our community. As CCSRE celebrates its 30th anniversary, I am reminded of the intellectual and political struggles that have sustained us and kept us together.

Students from diverse backgrounds rallied—through protests, sit-ins, and even hunger strikes—to demand the creation of what we now know as CCSRE. Faculty, through research, teaching, and service, worked tirelessly to create an intellectual community that was not limited by disciplinary boundaries. And, of course, students and faculty, never without the support of our exceptional staff, worked together to ensure that CCSRE was created by the community, for the community. I witnessed this firsthand in 2023 when students and faculty joined forces to reimagine and reinvigorate CCSRE’s core curriculum. 

As we step into the next 30 years of CCSRE, let’s put in the work to make sure that our community, as well as the broader community surrounding it, stays together. This is the spirit with which CCSRE was founded, and it is the spirit that will guide us into the future. To that end, students, I will be holding open office hours every Friday from 1-3PM. Please feel free to stop by whenever, with whatever.

Sincerely,

Steven Othello Roberts 
Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity