CORE: Critical Orientations to Race and Ethnicity

Across humanities and social sciences disciplines, “race” and “ethnicity” are perennial topics of interest, from subaltern literature and performances of identity to policy debates over socioeconomic inequality. Reconciling the paradoxes inherent in both historic and contemporary constructions of race and ethnicity presents a constant and continuing challenge. Racial and ethnic identities are simultaneously nationally and internationally constructed, personal and political, vehicles of oppression and resistance. The CORE workshop strives to create an intellectual community that interrogates and advances scholarship across multiple disciplines, using a diverse array of research agendas to theorize and discuss race and ethnicity. Questions central to the field of race and ethnic studies which the workshop has historically explored and which remain relevant and engaging include: How do individuals, organization, and movements among racial and ethnic minorities engage with and resist political and economic marginalization, social neglect, and other forms of oppression? How have cultural projects among racial and ethnic minority communities contributed to such communities’ perception and understanding of themselves through the lenses of race and ethnicity? How can and do racial and ethnic minority groups recognize and act upon shared social, political and economic interests?