25th Anniversary

25th Anniversary Event Celebrates CCSRE History and Importance of Solidarity

Albert Camarillo, Founding Director of CCSRE, Professor of History - and by courtesy Graduate School of Education - and Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor/Haas...

An audience of nearly two hundred unique viewers from around the country joined Stanford University’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity last Friday evening as the Center celebrated its 25 year anniversary with a range of program participants, including an address by founding director Albert Camarillo, who was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award, one of five inaugural CCSRE awards given during the program. Camarillo reflected, “Without question, the theme of ‘solidarity’ resonated with so many speakers and ran throughout the program.” 

INAUGURAL AWARDS

Among the awardees recognized include Tania Mitchell, who received the Community Engagement Award for directing community engaged learning within CCSRE, establishing the foundation for such learning for the wider campus. Tricia Raikes, along with her husband Jeff Raikes, supported the initial effort and presented Mitchell’s award noting “It was a special memory for us. We were so new at philanthropy and when we inquired about earmarking funds in our gift to innovate and embed service-learning IN center, CCSRE was game to explore. We were so lucky to have Tania as the first director – she was bold and determined to develop the models and gave us the courage to continue to expand the work at Stanford, with CCSRE as the great model example of what was possible.”

Other inaugural awards given that evening include the Distinguished Alumni Award, given to CSRE graduate Michael Tubbs, the Emerging Scholar Award, given to Jackelyn Hwang, and the Community Building Award, given to Karen Biestman. 

Acknowledging the many special moments throughout the program, Valerie Red-Horse Mohl,MC for the evening and Chair of CCSRE's national Advisory Board, stated, "There was a collective overall realization through the course of the celebration as to how many lives have been touched by CCSRE and how many amazing diverse individuals are brought together in solidarity by CCSRE experiences over the last 25 years for a common purpose. We all feel so connected and related as part of the CCSRE family and the evening truly embodied "Strength in Solidarity"!

ARTIST FEATURE

As part of an CSRE alum artist feature, Kiyan Williams('13) joined with MC Red-Horse Mohl for a live conversation focused on their sculpture "Reaching Towards Warmer Suns" (2020). Williams explained how the sculpture arose from a need to mark paths of slavery in Richmond, Virgina, as sacred, and "memorialize on-going struggles of self-determination for Black people." 

In a clip shared during the program, Williams explains their sculpture as a reflection of the past as fluid and as something that animates and haunts the present.

The Stanford community will have an opportunity to see the sculpture when it makes its home on the front lawn of the Anderson Collection during summer and fall 2021. 

CCSRE COMMUNITY COMMENTS

“Since its founding 25 years ago, CCSRE has been one of the school’s signature programs: organizing, cultivating, and promoting research and teaching on race and ethnicity in a comparative context. It’s complex configuration led the way at its founding, breaking new ground. Looking forward to the next decade, I am confident that CCSRE will continue to break new ground. It will be vital to the university's efforts to elevate research and teaching about race and ethnicity even further as its scholars address issues from algorithmic biases to health care disparities to uncovering lost voices and perspectives in our history." -Debra Satz, Dean of the School of Humanities & Sciences

"The program underscored the role CCSRE has played in transforming Stanford and the field of ethnic studies more generally, and why the discussions sparked by CCSRE continue to be vital today." -Calvin Cheung-Miaw, CCSRE Teaching Fellow & Author of CCSRE's 25th Anniversary Commemorative Book

"It was a joy to witness the many moments of solidarity our diverse and dedicated CCSRE community demonstrated during the event. I am so deeply honored to have been part of this special kick-off program for the 25th anniversary year." -Jennifer DeVere Brody, CCSRE Director

"My hope is for the university to recognize the importance of the center's work over the past 25 years and invest further in its mission and programs in the coming year." -Al Camarillo, CCSRE Founding Director

Learn more about CCSRE's 25th Anniversary, the history of the program, and upcoming events HERE.