CSRPC: Projects
The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture was established in 1994 under the direction of Professor Michael Dawson. From its inception, faculty, students, and staff who have been involved with the Center have been committed to establishing a new type of research institute devoted to the study of race and ethnicity, one that seeks to expand the study of race beyond the black/white paradigm while exploring social and identity cleavages within racialized communities. Scholars affiliated with the Center have also endeavored to make race and ethnicity central topics of intellectual investigation at the University of Chicago by fostering interdisciplinary research, teaching, and public debate among students and faculty. Fundamentally, the Center is committed to producing engaged scholarship that rejects the false dichotomy between rigorous intellectual work and community activism. We seek, instead, to contribute intellectually challenging and innovative scholarship that can help people transform their thinking and their lives. Towards those goals, the Center has provided funding and other types of support for a number of projects initiated by faculty affiliated with the Center, graduate students, and visiting fellows. The following are a few of those projects.
Chicago Democracy Project
Principal Investigator: Michael Dawson, Professor, Government and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University
Project Director: Jaime Dominguez, Visiting Research Fellow, Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture and Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois-Chicago
The Chicago Democracy Project (CDP) offers a unique picture of the City of Chicago’s political process as it relates to the electoral system, group participation, and public resource allocation outcomes. The CDP is a five component database based on the following: 1) citywide election returns for all of the primary and general elections (including special elections) at the ward and precinct level; 2) public hires stratified by department, occupation, race, and gender; 3) government contract distribution by race; 4) public appointments to boards and commissions stratified by race and gender; 5) mayoral campaign finance contributions. The CDP covers the period 1975-2000 and is being supported by a generous grant from the Politics and Culture Division at the Joyce Foundation.
Upon completion, the CDP will be made available for downloading on the worldwide web site of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. The CDP is significant in that it benefits both the scholarly and non-scholarly community. It will be of use to scholars who seek to understand relationships among a number of social and political variables at the community level. And, it will increase community and political participation, and help reduce the influence of money in political campaigns inasmuch as community activists, potential candidates and insurgent candidates will find it possible to access low-cost, reliable information on communities.
Of particular interest will be the way the CDP can broaden electoral participation in Chicago. As our experience and that of many others attests, it is expensive to collect information about elections on the ward and precinct level, about procurement contracts, public employment and public appointments. Currently only incumbents or their professional consultants have ready access even to parts of this information about their constituents. Yet all candidates, no matter how well or less well financed they are, can make substantial use of such data in their election bids. By collecting and publishing free election data on the Internet, the CDP will lower the costs of obtaining valuable information for aspiring campaigners with modest campaign budgets. This will help reduce the impact that money has upon political campaigns in the Chicago communities covered by the CDP.
In addition, civic organizations and activists concerned with levels of community participation in City governance will also find the CDP useful. They will be able to measure political participation by racial and gender, insofar as electoral turnout and the demographics of elected officials and appointed commission and board positions indicates such participation. Civic organizations and activists will also be able to employ information on City procurement contracts to indicate both the concentration of private financial power in City governance and the distribution of city expenditures among different demographic groups.
We look forward to the launching of the Chicago Democracy Project in 2004.
Broken Glass: A Community Impact Study of the Chihuly Exhibit in Garfield Park, Chicago, Phase I
Project Director: Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
In November 2001 the Chicago Park District and the Boeing Corporation partnered to bring the work of Seattle-based, glass artist Dale Chihuly to the Garfield Park Conservatory located in the Garfield Park neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. The exhibit "Chihuly in the Park: A Garden of Glass" became an unexpected blockbuster. Fueled by outstanding word-of-mouth reviews and extensive media coverage, the Chihuly exhibit drew enormous crowds to the beautiful conservatory located in the heart of an economically devastated, predominately African American community. Dale Chihuly, a critically acclaimed, glass artist created a breathtaking exhibition that mingled his artistic glasswork with the conservatory's collection of plants. It was an exhibit that showcased both the artist's creations and the natural environment of the conservatory.
The Chicago Park District and the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance expected that the exhibit would attract additional visitors, but were unprepared for the explosive popularity of the exhibit. The "Chihuly in the Park" show drew an average of 40,000 visitors a month, a staggering increase over the 11,000 monthly visitors the conservatory averaged in the previous year. The exhibit was featured on national television programs, such as NBC's Today Show, it became a favorite of Mayor Daley who hosted a number of official city events there, and the exhibit was extended twice, ultimately running for a little over a year. The Chihuly exhibit created a citywide and national "buzz," attracted visitors from all over the world, and reminded many Chicagoans of a previously neglected landmark in the city.
For academic researchers and policy makers interested in the economic, social, and political impact of the arts, the "Garden of Glass" experience offered an opportunity to study the ways that cultural events like this one impact the attitudes of city residents, the lives of community citizens, and the strategies for economic redevelopment already in place. "Garden of Glass" was unquestionably an artistic success, but did it influence the neighborhood that hosted it? Using a variety of methodologies, we have set out to assess the economic and social impact of the "Garden of Glass" exhibit on the Garfield Park neighborhood. This study is animated by a number of questions--most centrally, how did the "Garden of Glass" exhibit contribute to the economic and social redevelopment of the Garfield Park neighborhood? What was the impact of this show on the neighborhood and its residents and on the mostly middle-class audiences visiting it for probably the first time? And what lessons can this show provide city and arts planners looking to integrate arts and cultural projects into community development? We do not yet have all the answers, but this report offers findings from the first stage of the study.
For a copy of the initial report from Phase I of the project, click here.
The Program of Academic Exploration for High School Juniors: Race, Religion, and Contemporary U.S. Politics
Project Director: Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
In a continuing effort to create mutually beneficial programs, the University of Chicago and Kenwood Academy are pleased to announce the third year in an annual collaborative effort. The Program of Academic Exploration for High School Juniors is designed to offer an unique learning experience to selected juniors of Kenwood Academy by pairing them with a mentor/professor at the University of Chicago. This year Elizabeth Kirby of Kenwood, Duel Richardson of the University of Chicago, and Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell will develop an exciting curriculum for approximately 20 juniors from Kenwood.
This year's program will focus on the topic of "Race, Religion, and Contemporary U.S. Politics." This topic is a broad umbrella and student participants will have considerable input in shaping the exact direction of the learning experience. This topic will offer students the opportunity to reflect on their own lives, to analyze important trends in contemporary U.S. politics, and to explore the ways that race and religion intersect in the modern world.
This topic offers rich opportunities for readings in a variety of academic disciplines including theology, political science, history, sociology, and law. It also offers the opportunity to allow students to apply their own knowledge to the task of academic investigation. They will have the opportunity to be the "experts" instead of simply relying on the readings or instructors to convey information.
For additional information about the program, click here.
International Association of Black Religions & Spiritualities
The International Association of Black Religions and Spiritualities is a global network that links diverse local networks in 14 different countries. Focusing on darker skin communities and countries that are disproportionately impacted by adverse circumstances, the Association shares information with a newsletter, web page, and edited books; sponsors youth and student exchanges; supports women’s advocacy; and strengthens national and regional networks globally. The theme of the Association is Another World Is Possible. The objective of the Association is to draw on all forms of progressive religions and spiritualities of darker skin peoples globally in the struggle for human dignity and social justice. Fifty percent of the Association consists of women. Held in balance are youth, middle age, and elderly representatives as well as academics, community organizers, and religious/spiritual leaders. Delegates come from Dalits in India, Aboriginals in Australia, Afro Cubans, Blacks in the England, Afro Brazilians, Jamaicans, Burakumin in Japan, Fiji, Native Hawaiians, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and black North Americans. Dwight N. Hopkins (USA: dhopkins@uchicago.edu) and Marjorie Lewis (Jamaica) are the communications coordinators. Funded by the Ford Foundation, the website is: http://home.comcast.net/~pantonioe/Index.html
