Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

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The central mission of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity is to contribute meaningfully to the field of research and scholarship on race, ethnicity and social justice, to assist in reframing the way that we talk about and act on race and ethnicity and to deepen our understanding of the causes and consequences of and solutions to racial and ethnic hierarchy and disparity. It envisions and seeks to realize a society that is fair and just for all people, where opportunity is not limited by race, ethnicity, gender or class, where democratic ideals inform social policy and where all people recognize and embrace the universal responsibility that each person has for the welfare of every other person.

By creating a research-based structural lens to look at racism, it seeks to shift not only the way that racism is conceptualized but also the way we conceive of strategies to counteract its impact. In shifting the way we talk about, think about and act on race, the Institute hopes to give new meaning to the proposition that human destinies are intertwined. Much of the Institute’s research is applied and policy oriented, providing informed direction and assistance to social justice advocates, communities, funders and policy makers. Its ultimate goal is to stimulate and facilitate transformative change to bring about a society that is fair and just for all people.

The Institute’s core research areas are:

Opportunity Communities/Housing — The Communities of Opportunity model advocates for a fair investment in all of a region’s people and neighborhoods — to improve the life outcomes of all citizens and to improve the health of entire regions.
Talking About Race — All too often implicit and explicit race talk has been used to divide and alienate. At the same time, the Institute believes that colorblindness, though sometimes urged by people and organizations with the best intentions, is a mistake.
Structural Racism/Racialization — The Institute’s work operates along the premise that opportunities exist in a complex web of interdependent factors, and that in order to alleviate inequities in any single area, we must first consider the entire structure that supports these inequities.
Education — The Institute recognizes that public education, like every structure in society that confers benefits to individuals unequally based on race and class, is part of a larger system with lifelong implications for both individual and group-based success.
GIS/Maps — Inequality has a geographic footprint. The Institute has pioneered the use of maps to communicate the history and presence of discriminatory and exclusionary policies that spatially segregate people.
Emerging Research — Social justice issues are never static and new challenges and issues are constantly emerging.

Racial Equity Resource Guide

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